In one of his final moves as prime minister, Trudeau argues for bold RCMP reform

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is using some of his final hours in office to call for a drastic and controversial shakeup to one of the country's most emblematic institutions: the RCMP.

In an exclusive interview, Trudeau laid out why he believes the Mounties should get out of the boots-on-the ground policing they provide in provinces across the country and instead shift focus to challenges like national security, violent extremism and terrorism, money laundering, cybercrime and organized crime — including fentanyl rings.

"We know we have an extraordinary institution. But I know from having seen it that the RCMP is strained — we've all seen it — in dealing with the level of threats and the new reality of a much more dangerous world," he told CBC News.

The prime minister is putting out a white paper later Monday that outlines a gutsy — and controversial —  vision for the RCMP to focus solely on federal policing priorities.

As it stands, the RCMP also serves as the police of jurisdiction in most provinces, three territories, 150 municipalities and about 600 Indigenous communities.

The prime minister's proposal would see the police service eventually end its contracts, which reports have said soak up resources and funding to the detriment of its federal policing wing.

Trudeau argued that the "gap between doing necessary front-line enforcement in a rural community across the Prairies or in the North, to going after the evilest cybercriminals you can imagine who are threatening our kids" is so vast, it's "maybe not the best use of our resources."

"As politicians, as leaders, we have a responsibility to step back and say, 'But is this fit for purpose in the 21st century?'" he said.

The crux of the white paper — a report outlining the government's proposal for legislation or explaining a political issue — is not new.

Calls to reform the RCMP have been mounting for years — perhaps never as intense as after the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead, the worst in Canadian history.

The resulting public inquiry denounced the RCMP response to the crisis on almost every level and called for radical change.

In 2023, a special intelligence and security committee warned Trudeau's government that it needed to give urgent attention to federal policing or risk seeing national security files fall through the cracks.

The timing of the paper, coming the day after the federal Liberal Party elected its next leader and in the final days before Trudeau vacates the job he's held for nine years, will likely garner criticism.

"I have been trying to do this since the very beginning. So this isn't me trying to jam something out the door," he said, when asked about the timing of the proposal.