RCMP Musical Ride ‘at Risk’ Amid Recruitment Shortfalls

Royal Canadian Mounted Police take part in a display during Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on July 1, 2010. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The RCMP Musical Ride has too few riders to mount a full complement and faces increasing challenges due to flagging recruitment, an internal audit has found.

The Musical Ride, a special RCMP unit showcasing the equestrian skills performed by 32 cavalry riders, now only has 24 riders and has not been at full strength since 2018, according to the audit, which was first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The sustainability of the Musical Ride is at risk as divisions are not releasing a sufficient number of members on an annual basis to ensure its effective and efficient operation,” says the report, entitled “Evaluation Of The RCMP’s Musical Ride.”

The RCMP was considering hiring civilian riders to make up for the shortfall but decided against the idea, the report notes, fearing a negative reaction if it were made public.

“This approach could raise several challenges. Legitimacy and effectiveness of the Musical Ride could be negatively impacted if the riders were not police officers,” the report states.

The Musical Ride, which turned 150 years old last year, costs around $11.7 million annually, with riders travelling across the country to perform at exhibitions and other events.

The Mounties have been struggling with recruitment in recent years. Nadine Huggins, the RCMP’s former chief human resources officer, told a Senate committee last year, that “policing, like other sectors of the economy, is experiencing unprecedented challenges to recruit sufficient numbers of applicants.”

RCMP spokesperson Kim Chamberland told The Epoch Times in February 2023 that, alongside recruitment challenges, many regular RCMP members are leaving the force.

“While exact reasons are difficult to determine, it appears that members delayed retirement during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sgt. Chamberland said.

Data provided to The Epoch Times shows that the RCMP attrition rate had increased to 4.54 percent in the fiscal year 2021-2022, from 3.55 percent in 2020-2021.

Last year, a Senate Standing Committee on National Finance report noted that the RCMP had 1,295 positions vacant out of the total 18,483 funded regular members.

The committee also heard that while the RCMP now accepts non-citizens as volunteers, nearly half of the 152 permanent residents who applied in the previous fiscal year had either been rejected or had dropped out of the recruitment process.

The RCMP is not the only public service in Canada struggling with recruitment woes. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has also been grappling with the issue for several years.

Earlier this year, Defence Minister Bill Blair said that more people were leaving the armed forces than entering. If that the trend continues, he said, it could lead to a “death spiral” for the CAF.

Like the RCMP, the CAF has also recently allowed non-citizens to apply to join in an effort to bolster recruitment but a fraction of applicants have successfully been recruited thus far.