Canada's top Mountie sits down with CTV News to discuss B.C. policing issues

Surrey, B.C. -

A little more than six months after being appointed, Canada's top Mountie is on his first official trip to British Columbia.

Commissioner Mike Duheme had already planned to be in B.C. this week, but moved his trip up a couple of days to attend the regimental funeral for Const. Rick O’Brien, who was shot and killed in the line of duty on Sept. 22.

“Rick did incredible work in his community and a senseless act of violence has deprived the community of an excellent police officer,” Duheme said.

Duheme sat down with CTV News at RCMP E-Division headquarters in Surrey, a city that is undergoing a tumultuous policing transition as it slowly switches from the RCMP to a municipal police service.

But more than five months after the province ordered the city to continue the transition to the Surrey Police Service, even Duheme has no idea when that might happen.

"I have yet to see a transition plan that will have these milestones, if you want, or the diary dates as to when we can start drawing down,” he said.

"We have a very, very low vacancy rate in Surrey. The mayor is extremely happy with the service that is being provided by the RCMP. And I've committed that throughout this transition the RCMP will continue to provide the professional service that it has been providing to the people of Surrey."

While the Surrey detachment has a low vacancy rate, that is not the case everywhere in B.C.

Province-wide, the vacancy rate is eight per cent, and that means E-Division is short about 580 staff.

“It should be zero, because what people tend to forget is that every time there's a vacancy, that means someone else is stepping up to do that work,” the commissioner said.

“And if you want to achieve that work-life balance, it's hard when someone's continuously doing overtime or covering other shifts."

Duheme said the national force has made some changes to entice more new recruits.

At one time, graduates of the six-month training program at RCMP Depot in Regina had to be willing to accept postings almost anywhere in the country.

Now, graduates can more easily request to be assigned to their home provinces.

The RCMP says it has 1,000 B.C. applicants in the pipeline right now, including many who already have law-enforcement experience.

"We're seeing more and more experienced police officers come into the RCMP,” Duheme said. “We actually have a troop right now at Depot of experienced police officers from B.C. that are being kitted and once they're done, they're being posted throughout British Columbia. Years ago, you wouldn't see that."

The June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar at a Surrey gurdwara was among the issues touched on in the wide-ranging interview.

His killing sparked outrage at the time and has drawn international condemnation since the prime minister announced Canada has credible intelligence to suggest agents of the Indian government may have been involved.

The stunning development has complicated relations between the two countries as the investigation continues to unfold.

"(The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) is running the investigation, but we also have multiple units assisting IHIT and we are also using the national security lens through all that,” Duheme said.