In 2005, Section 207 of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) made it mandatory for all departments and agencies to have in place an Informal Conflict Management System (ICMS).
In the ensuing nine years, the RCMP presented the bargaining agents with policy draft after policy draft until the latest which satisfactorily addressed USGE concerns.
The RCMP’s new policy went live on June 20th and, on June 24-25th, LROs Sister Saumur and Brother Kers, were invited by the RCMP’s National Manager, Informal Conflict Management Program (Laura Lee MacLean) to observe and comment on the RCMP’s two day pilot training course for Informal Conflict Management.
The pilot training course was attended by 17 people from all categories of employees and was well received. The only major feedback provided by USGE representatives was a recommendation to use RCMP based examples, exercises and case studies.
With the approval of this policy by USGE, we encourage the use of ICMS where appropriate.
However, USGE does not currently support nor recommend the use of a parallel program called “Peer to Peer”, recently launched by the RCMP and sometimes confused with ICMS.
Peer to Peer does not provide the same level of commitment to confidentiality nor are the Peer to Peer volunteers trained and qualified conflict resolution practitioners.