Which is the fastest way about the Canadian police check

Hello all!

I was wondering with of the following ways would be the fastest in the process of obtaining my wife's PR.

Since she stayed in Canada for more than 6 months, she will have to get a police check (finger prints and stuff) from the RCMP.
There are two ways to do apparently.
1) Request the check before starting the immigration process and then sending everything in one shot (this isnt free though).
or
2) Request the check after getting her file number (this is free).

If we do the check after getting a file ID, we were worrying that they might suspend the process until they get the answer from RCMP. So we thought it might be faster to get the check done before sending all the papers to CIC, but I guess there would be some waiting time in that case too..
Any of you guys know which might be faster?

Thanks