The RCMP posted Const. Douglas Scott to the Baffin Island hamlet of Kimmirut before he had finished his mandatory on-the-job training, CBC News has learned.

RCMP Const. Douglas Scott, 20, shown in this RCMP photo, had less than six months of on- the-job training before his assignment to Kimmirut, Nunavut, where he was shot and killed Monday night.
(RCMP/Canadian Press)

The 20-year-old Mountie, who was shot and killed on Monday night while responding to a drunk driving complaint in the community, was supposed to get the standard five months of field training with a senior officer who serves as a mentor.

But Scott was transferred to the two-person detachment on Aug. 16, a month-and-a-half early, CBC News has learned.

Recruits who have graduated from the RCMP training academy are required to do six months of field training, except in Nunavut, where it's five months.

The RCMP wouldn't give the exact dates Scott began his mandatory on-the-job training, when he completed it or when he was posted to Kimmirut. The force would only say he had started his training in Iqaluit in May and completed it, and that he was in Kimmirut for five weeks before he was shot.

Pingoatuk Kolola, 37, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Scott.

Two years ago, RCMP training was the subject of a report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who at the time registered concerns that 16 per cent of new cadets did not receive the full mandatory six months of field coaching.

Sgt. Rod Faith, the staff relations representative for the RCMP in Nunavut, said management told him Scott had an alternate training plan and that his new partner in Kimmirut would serve as Scott's field coach.

"I had my concerns, I voiced my concerns to the management and as I normally would if a member was transferred before his plan and his recruit training," Faith said.

But Faith stressed that he was in no way saying Scott's death was a result of how he was trained.

On Thursday, the widow of another slain RCMP officer called for changes in the way the force patrols remote communities in the North, saying there needs to be a mandatory backup policy.

Const. Christopher Worden, 30, was gunned down in Hay River, N.W.T., last month. In the cases of Scott and Worden, both officers answered the service calls alone, late at night.

Jodie Worden also questioned why Scott was posted to Kimmirut.

"I don't believe Constable Scott should have been in a two-member detachment with only his six months training under his belt," she said.