The federal government will introduce a bill Thursday that could pave the way for RCMP members to unionize.

RCMP officers, pictured in a 2005 file photo, await the introduction of a bill that could pave the way 22,000 of them to unionize. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

The move comes more than a year after Ontario's Superior Court ruled that a federal regulation preventing the Mounties from forming a union was unconstitutional. The judge gave the government 18 months to comply with the ruling.

The RCMP, with 22,000 members across the country, is the only major Canadian police force that is not unionized.

However, a high-ranking Mountie said many of the force's members do not want a union, but rather a modified version of their current negotiating process.

Currently, labour relations within the force are handled by an internal staff relations program.

"We've tested the members just recently as April, and clearly from the sample we got from the membership, they'd like to see a modified staff relations program and not a union," Staff Sgt. Brian Roach said. "They're not interested in that at this time."

Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian MacDonnell ruled in a 38-page decision in April 2009 that the collaborations between the staff relations representatives and management are "extensive and carried out in good faith," but they remain "a process of consultation only."

MacDonnell slammed the staff relations program, mandated by a 1988 federal regulation, as "an entity created by management to avoid unionization."

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews wouldn't comment Wednesday on the expected bill.