RCMP logo, file photo. (Image: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko/LethbridgeNewsNOW

Municipalities say province ignoring concerns about provincial police

Sep 4, 2022 | 12:10 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – An organization representing over 300 of Alberta’s 334 municipalities says the Government of Alberta is not hearing its concerns regarding a proposed provincial police service that could replace the RCMP in Alberta.

Alberta Municipalities says in a statement that they had a constructive meeting with Justice Minister Tyler Shandro on Aug. 25.

The 90-minute conversation focused on the proposed model, the current RCMP model, the possibility of creating a provincial public safety task force, Alberta’s relationship with the RCMP, and recruitment challenges.

Coming out of the meeting, however, Alberta Municipalities says the government “needs to stop planning and designing a policing model in a silo or vacuum.” They claim the province has not adequately heard the concerns of stakeholders such as themselves.

“Over the last 10 months, Alberta Municipalities has consistently encouraged the provincial government to focus on the fundamental question Albertans want answered: how can we enhance public safety for all Albertans? Instead, the Government of Alberta has chosen to focus on how the province can distance itself from Ottawa,” reads a portion of the statement from Alberta Municipalities.

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Alberta Municipalities wants a task force to be established that would comprise themselves, Alberta Health Services, Community and Social Services, RCMP, and the federal and provincial governments.

“If the task force’s mandate is to develop models and solutions to improve public safety in our communities and throughout the province, regardless of who delivers community policing in Alberta, then we are ready to take part,” says Alberta Municipalities. “If, however, its mandate is to continue with the model as currently proposed and/or how to transition to an Alberta Provincial Police Service, then our member municipalities have been clear that they do not support this direction and they would need to be consulted to determine our Associations further involvement.”

The idea of replacing the RCMP with an Alberta police force has been discussed by the United Conservative Party for a couple of years. Shando officially unveiled his proposal on Aug. 16, which he claims would provide more services and officers to communities.

“This report reveals that the current deployment model is bureaucratic and heavily centralized. By moving to a provincial deployment model, we would be able to add 275 front-line police officers to the smallest 42 detachments,” Shandro explained. “We can also make access to mental health, addictions, family crisis services, and other specialized police services more accessible to all communities across Alberta.”

The proposed policing model includes 65-85 community detachments, while also creating 20-30 “service hub detachments” that would support community detachments with services such as mental health response.

The head of Alberta RCMP was not supportive of the proposed change in policing models, saying it has a lot of similarities to what the RCMP already provides, and that support from the public and municipalities for RCMP remains strong.

More details on the proposed Alberta Provincial Police Service can be read on the Future of AB Policing website.

READ MORE: Alberta RCMP head not supporting provincial police proposal