Macdonald Government Recommends Increasing NWMP Presence

In the House of Commons, the government made a recommendation that the Northwest Mounted Police force be expanded to 500 constables with 20 supernumeraries. Part of Macdonald's reasoning for this expansion was their inability to properly perform their duties, especially given the frequency of encounters between police officers and starving Indigenous inhabitants, as well as the threat of violence erupting between settlers and Indigenous people.