[6][7] The selected members were trained at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa by the British Army 22 Special Air Service (22 SAS) with CAF support.
[6] In May, the Solicitor General submitted a proposal to Cabinet to establish a full-time national counter terrorist unit by either the RCMP or the CAF.
[7][11][12] SERT consisted of 49 operators divided into two sub-units of 24 who rotated on a monthly basis between on call and training, and if required, could deploy as a whole unit.
[3][1] A SERT sub-unit pre-deployed in readiness to support law enforcement for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1987 held in Vancouver and in 1988 to the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary and to the 14th G7 Summit in Toronto.
[6] In February 1992, the Solicitor General finally provided SERT with the authority to commence recruitment for an additional sub-unit which would bring the total strength of unit to 72 operators.
[6][1] The Senate Special Committee on Terrorism and the Public Safety produced a report in 1989 that criticized the RCMP for failing to have conducted training exercises between SERT and other Canadian police forces tactical units.
[19] There was a view in some large police forces that their own tactical units were as capable as SERT and that they would not require assistance from the RCMP to resolve a terrorist incident.
[21] The CAF view on raising a special operations force had changed from 1985 and it was now open to a proposal being driven by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Robert Fowler to assume the responsibility from the RCMP.
[11] In 2020, Chris Madsen from the Canadian Forces College wrote that the CAF had recently unsuccessfully tried to return the counter terrorism role to the RCMP.