PEI·NewRCMP officers on Prince Edward Island will soon begin sporting new navy blue shirts as part of the police agency’s pilot project to modernize its uniforms.Design made for a modern workforce, including female officersRyan McKellop · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2025 3:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 27 minutes agoCpl. Gavin Moore, media relations officer for the P.E.I. RCMP, is pictured wearing the grey shirt that is being replaced by a more modern navy blue design. (Connor Lamont/CBC)RCMP officers on Prince Edward Island will soon begin sporting new navy blue shirts as part of the police agency’s pilot project to modernize its uniforms.Mike Rainville, the RCMP’s national manager of uniform and equipment operations, said the current shirts have been in use for nearly three decades.”The existing uniform shirt has been around since the mid-90s with the grey colour that everyone is used to seeing,” he said.”Our project was to update the shirt in terms of fits, comfort, overall appearance [and] textile technology.”The new RCMP navy blue uniform shirt is made for a more diverse police force, moving away from the former unisex design. (RCMP)P.EI. was chosen to get the new shirts first due to the small size of Island’s division. Orders were set to start shipping Thursday, and members of the public should see officers wearing them within the next few days to a week.Rainville said the force tried to strike a balance between officers having the proper equipment and keeping them comfortable while on the job.”It is also being updated in terms of having a professional appearance up top with a mechanical stretch fabric on the bottom. It has moisture-wicking properties — it’s a very modern up-to-date style of shirt,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff that we ask them to wear that they need to wear to keep themselves safe, and so it’s finding that balance between operational requirement and also making sure that they are as comfortable as possible.”The new shirt design also had a more diverse police force in mind, given there are now more women joining the force.”We’ve introduced a fit that is specifically more tailored to female body types, in terms of shoulder length… and torso length as well as, you know, fitting better on smaller body sizes,” Rainville said. More modern designs comingThe new navy shirts were researched and developed in Ottawa, and a manufacturer in Stellarton, N.S., was chosen through a competitive procurement process.Rainville said the shirts are just one part of the modernization of RCMP uniforms. The new shirts strike a balance between officers having the proper equipment and keeping them comfortable while on the job, the RCMP says. (RCMP)”We’ve introduced a new operational belt system with pouches that’s already out there, we have a couple of other items that are also on the list to be updated,” he said.”These are more minor changes in terms of the officers’ appearance, but they are introducing a lot more modernized concepts in order for them to be able to do their jobs.”Last year, the RCMP introduced ribbon skirts as an option for Indigenous women and two-spirit employees to wear with the traditional red serge for special events and ceremonies. ABOUT THE AUTHORRyan McKellop is a graduate of the Holland College Journalism program and a web writer at CBC P.E.I.With files from Jackie Sharkey
RCMP rolling out new navy blue uniform shirt design to P.E.I. officers over the next week
