# Bureaucrat named as new RCMP commissioner



## Blackadder1916 (6 Jul 2007)

Bureaucrat named as new RCMP commissioner
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070705/RCMP_Elliott_070706/20070706?hub=TopStories

CTV.ca News Staff  Updated: Fri. Jul. 6 2007 11:30 AM ET 

Breaking a longstanding RCMP tradition of hiring from within, the federal government formally named career bureaucrat William Elliott as new full-time commissioner for the Mounties. 

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day confirmed the appointment Friday morning. 

Despite the fact Elliott has never served as a police officer, Day said he has "incredible and extensive experience that suits him well to the position he is about to take on. 

"He knows what it is to be in a position of extreme crisis and keep a cool head." 

CTV News first reported yesterday that the former Public Safety Department bureaucrat will take the reins of a force troubled by a pension scandal and a special investigator's report that called its governance "horribly broken." 

"The prime minister felt he needed an outsider, somebody to sweep in with a new broom, and with no loyalties within the RCMP," reported CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife. 

Bev Busson, who filled in as the force's acting commissioner after Giuliano Zaccardelli stepped down last December, had called for a Mountie to lead the RCMP. 

And retired RCMP staff-sergeant Ron Lewis said he saw Elliott as being too close with the government. 

"The RCMP is supposed to be arm's-length from government,'' Lewis told the Canadian Press."I believe the arm just got very short." 

Fife said senior RCMP officers have told him Elliot's appointment felt like a "demoralizing blow, a slap in their face." 

"They feel they're being punished for the mistakes and scandal that happened under former commissioner Zaccardelli and a few people who worked under him," said Fife. 

He added that some officers view Elliott as a "political operator" who got his start under the government of Brian Mulroney. 

Facing questions about the controversy surrounding his appointment, Elliot said as an outsider there is "no doubt" he will face challenges that his predecessors didn't have to face. But he's optimistic he will overcome those challenges with the cooperation of the police force. 

"I have spoken to a number of members of the RCMP who have been very supportive of the idea, not only of the possibility of me being named commissioner, but the possibility of someone from the outside. So I don't think the view is universal," Elliot told reporters Friday. 

"But the management of the RCMP needs to be done -- it's a big and complex organization -- it needs to be done in a collaborative manner. We need to have an approach where everybody can bring their different experience and their different expertise to bear so that we can provide the best services to Canadians and we can have a police service that all Canadians can continue to be proud of." 

Despite the enormous challenges he faces, Fife says Elliott was viewed by many as a skilled manager in the public safety department as well as in the Coast Guard, where Elliott served as deputy commissioner. 

"Apparently people say he did a very good job when he was running the Coast Guard and he ended up having a lot of respect with the rank and file." 

In 1989, Elliott worked as an executive assistant to the office of the deputy prime minister. One year later, he became chief of staff in the same office. 

Elliott also served as national security advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper from April 2005 until last spring. 

Day also reminded reporters on Friday that Brown was also appointed by a previous Liberal government as national security adviser to former prime minister Paul Martin. 

"I think that says a lot for his ability to be even-minded and fair-minded . . . and we didn't hold that against him that he had a Liberal appointment at one time in his life," said Day. "We refused to discriminate against him in that." 

David Brown, former head of the Ontario Securities Commission, laid most of the blame for the RCMP's troubles at the feet of Zaccardelli. 

Brown cast Zaccardelli as an authoritarian bully whose mishandling of complaints over management of the $12-billion RCMP pension fund destroyed morale within the agency. 

Zaccardelli has denied any wrongdoing.


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## Old Sweat (6 Jul 2007)

Commissioner Designate Elliott is not going to have an easy time of it. I suspect a few heads will roll and there will be some early retirements, which is not the same thing. I also suspect that he enjoys the support of the PCO, which will ease the strain somewhat. As for the individual members in small detachments, they should see little change in their lives. That should not be the case in headquarters and in the divisional headquarters across the country.

As far as I know, the last outsider to be appointed commissioner was Lawrence Herchmer, who had been an Indian Agent in Birtle, MB at the time of the North-West Rebellion. He took over the force in April 1886 and served until August 1900. The force had been criticized harshly for its performance during the rebellion. While the outgoing commissioner carried the can, the government deserved a major part of the blame for demoralizing the NWMP by such enlightened management techniques as pay cuts and hiring and promoting based on political connections.


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## GAP (6 Jul 2007)

I suspect there will be a lot of bureaucratic stalling and stuff initially (much like Rona Ambrose apparently encountered in the environment portfolio).


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## Colin Parkinson (6 Jul 2007)

I suspect he has been appointed to slice and dice and put the fear of god into the senior ranks, after he is finished they will place someone to rebuild it.


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