Canadian Press
The RCMP will not meet its recruiting goal this year and is launching a new national campaign Monday to attract more young people to the force, The Canadian Press has learned.
The $800,000 advertising blitz is aimed at the 18-to-34 age group – potential recruits young enough to be the children of veteran officers who will be retiring in droves over the next few years.
Designed around a pitch that the RCMP offers an exciting, meaningful career with vast opportunities, the campaign will target members of the Internet generation who are being courted by other employers faced with Canada’s labour shortage.
“The crucial point is that we as an organization must be seen as a viable employer and people need to know that we are hiring,” said Supt. Glen Siegersma, officer in charge of the RCMP’s national recruiting program in Ottawa.
“All I ask they do is take a moment and look at us as a potential employer and make an informed decision as to whether or not it is something they would like to pursue rather than writing us off because of urban myth.”
Such urban myths include beliefs that the RCMP only wants to hire members of minority groups, people who are bilingual or university graduates – a throwback to conditions a decade or more ago when a tight job market allowed the force to cherry-pick recruits.
In fact, a prospective officer must simply be a healthy Canadian citizen of good character at least 19 years old, speak English or French, have a high school diploma and possess a valid driver’s licence.
The campaign will feature 34 million Internet ads, including ads on the websites of radio stations that are popular with the target age group. There will also be ads on job websites such as Monster and Workopolis and on other sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo.
Colourful posters of RCMP members in action will be placed in fitness centres and on transit buses and subways, all extolling the job as “A Career Nowhere Near Ordinary.”
There will also be radio spots in Atlantic Canada and Nunavut and ads in publications aimed at post-secondary students, aboriginals and ethnic communities.
The plan is for the ads to entice young people to contact recruiters or click on the RCMP website (www.rcmp.ca) to ask about career opportunities.
The demand for new recruits has never been greater as the force expands, and more than 600 officers from the baby boom generation are to retire each year over the next few years.
While the RCMP plans to recruit about 2,000 people annually, the force will only sign up about 1,700 this year, Siegersma said from Ottawa.
“We are going to be a little shy on those goals this year.”
Along with the ad campaign, the Mounties have been beating the bushes at career fairs and presentations across Canada.
At 28, the average age of Mountie recruits is creeping up. More than one-third of the 1,509 recruits who signed up last year for the training program at the Regina Depot were over 30.
Of those who managed to pass the gruelling course, 358 were in their 30s and 35 were in their 40s. Four members of the class were in their 50s.
Ten years ago, only 20 per cent of graduates were over 30. Last year, that number was up to 32 per cent.
Cadets such as Wayne Dunn, 42, and Jacques Albert, 46, say the intense physical training is not something every older person can tolerate, but they are holding their own.
“If you come here and you are in good shape, it’s pretty good. You can follow everybody else,” Albert said during a break from depot training.
He said his biggest challenge has been working with computers.
“When I graduated high school we didn’t have computers.”
Dunn said there may even be benefits to being a more marinated recruit.
“You’re bringing a lot of life experience in,” he said. “That can only help you.”
While the RCMP is happy to have older recruits, it makes good business sense to train more young people and retain them longer, Siegersma said.
Part of the pitch to young people is that they can switch jobs regularly within the RCMP.
“We have more than 150 different types of jobs within the organization and so there are lots of opportunities for people to continue to challenge themselves over an entire career.”
The growing demand for recruits doesn’t mean the RCMP is lowering standards, though.
Siegersma said only about one out of every eight people who apply pass the rigid screening process. The hurdles include a written test, a polygraph and running an obstacle course. There are also medical and psychological exams and an in-depth interview.
And if accepted for training, there is no guarantee a recruit will pass the 24-week course and earn the right to wear the scarlet uniform that will mark him or her as a member of the iconic organization.
“We need the best of what Canadian society has to offer,” Siegersma said.
“I would not entrust the lives of Canadian citizens to anyone who shouldn’t be there. We are creating members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
- With files from Tim Cook in Regina
Yes, that is the truth. 30-40 years ago, the RCMP were the best. Hands down. They hired the best and trained the best. That isn’t the case anymore. They have gone downhill and municipal forces have improved by leaps and bounds. I know some very long service RCMP members and recent retirees that tell people not to join the RCMP and go municipal. This wasn’t the case in the past. The pride just isn’t there anymore and that is what made the difference. The only thing that remains of the RCMP is the name and a red uniform. Just an empty shell of an organization.
The problem with the RCMP is that they have gone for quantity instead of quality. Their attitude towards ethnic cities and towns they contract out to should be that yes we will hire minority officers, but they have to compete with everyone else and not just their own racial group. If you don’t like it, than find someone else to police your town. The RCMP should not have dropped their standards to police such contracts and should give them up. Because of this the RCMP is just the name on the local police cruiser that no longer means quality.
I agree with you that it should go back to para-military. The pride, dedication and teamwork went out the window when the training did. However, the system is plugged so full of these new avant guard liberals that it will never change. These clowns wouldn’t know how to fix the system if they wanted to. I think Billy would agree with this. Hopefully he comes back because I value his input.
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That seems to be the trend, and with the quality of Municipal Forces continuing upward, it will not abate soon. A contributer by the name of Billy had some good thoughts on this subject. I guess it proves the old adage that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They should go back to the para military ways of years gone by.
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What is hilarious is that as a Cadet in RCMP training you have no rights and underneath the nice liberal window dressing are garbage to the organization.
For years recruits were not paid, where they expected someone with a family and a mortgage to support themselves and their family for the best part of 6 months with no pay.
Now lets say during the final week you get an injury where you can’t march up and get your badge, rather than back troop you like the old days they will terminate your contract and throw you back onto the street like a piece of garbage and make you re-apply. Not only do you have to do the 22 week course over again, but at least up until recently you had to come up with the money to be out of work and support yourself. You could be the strongest cadet in the troop who was an over achiever, you still have to start from scratch. The RCMP is proud of this as it “says look how elite we are, not everyone gets through”. However, you could fail every test once, scrape through the second time and then make it onto the street. There you have it! Great cadets getting turfed for injuries, incompetent ones getting hired for well… incompetence.
There is a gutless anonymous peer assessment in place where you are assessed based on what others say about you anonymously. I don’t know how this is legal, but lets just say the RCMP like to hide behind the Charter of Rights and Freedoms exemption to educational institutions. There are many cadets without honor that will crucify anyone they don’t like.
They also have a horrible suitability file review system where if you are the victim of harassment and a gang of other cadets attack your character and subjectively attack your policing skills, you have no due process. This happens when other cadets through harassment make your life HELL and deliberately cause someone else extreme stress and strain. When the victim shows any reaction to the stress THEY cause, they will run off to the facilitators office telling them that so and so cannot hack it and often start fear mongering for their own safety. However, they conveniently forget to mention what caused the stress to begin with.
When the move is made by the facilitator to remove the stressed cadet, they are expected to defend themselves based on an accusatory ONE SENTENCE statement. There is no disclosure on what was said about you. They could have a binder full of stuff and you do not get to see it. There is no hearing. You cannot confront your accusers or question the validity of the accusations made. One has 24 hours to write a rebuttal based on one sentence that gets passed up the line 4 ranks. Of the 4 reviews, only the Sgt. does any investigating at all and is the only one who talks to anybody at all. After that the remaining three only go with what is on paper.
Rebuttal claims of harassment are poorly investigated if at all and anything that does get uncovered gets buried. Either way the target is dammed. Cite harassment and you are someone who is a troublemaker/ whistle blower who is trying to persecute others for their perceived deficiencies. If you don’t cite the harassment than they will just assume that it is that the demanding job and not the toxic work environment that is to blame and turf you for being a non hacker. Either way you are screwed.
Yes, the RCMP slick recruitment campaigns try to make you feel that everything is rosy. However, for just the way they conduct their training program alone is reason enough for anyone to not want to go to DEPOT. Go to a municipal or provincial force where you are treated like a human being.
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