Danielle Smith made the order in a Wednesday directive letter to Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis. In it, he directed Ellis to work with Justice Minister Tyler Sandro to “launch an Alberta Police Service (APS).” In Shandro’s letter, he instructed him to “finalize a decision” on the matter. Both letters were made public Thursday, but did not include timelines for when changes might be made. The pair of ministers came out in favor of an APS this week. “Rural crime is still a problem and really, it boils down to public safety,” Ellis told CTV News Edmonton about why this is happening. The former police officer did not deny that the changes Smith wants will result in higher costs, but argued that they are a worthwhile investment. “We’re all for fiscal responsibility. I know I am. I know the prime minister is. But it’s not going to be at the expense of those who are most vulnerable and it’s certainly not going to be at the expense of public safety.” Shandro told rural municipal leaders Wednesday that the current structure, in which the RCMP decides how policing dollars are spent in Alberta, is not working. “We have 113 detachments. Almost 40 percent of them have less than 10 officers in each of those detachments,” Sandro said at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) fall conference in downtown Edmonton. “And a lot of these detachments, frankly, are running on shoestrings. Because sometimes they only have three, five sworn members in each of these detachments. So we have to be able to have a bigger say.” Smith also delivered a speech at RMA on Thursday, but did not mention the police force in her remarks. He then took no questions from reporters.
“BUNDOGLE BILL. DOLLARS”
A 2021 PricewaterhouseCoopers report released by the government says the RCMP service currently costs Alberta about $500 million a year. The federal government is paying $170 million under a cost-sharing agreement. The report says if Alberta decided to go it alone, it would cost about $735 million each year, on top of $366 million in start-up costs. Last summer, the RMA president shot down the UCP government’s plan and 70 percent of its members voted against it. “This is going to be insanely expensive. It will be a billion dollar fiefdom. We see it coming and for some reason this government wants to go ahead with it,” Paul McLauchlin said at the time. Alberta municipalities also rejected the idea. In March, its members voted 144-34 against the policing models being considered by the UCP government. “If this is about improved policing in Alberta, let’s get to the bottom of the problem and maybe ask the RCMP to address that problem, rather than going down a completely different path,” chairwoman Cathy Heron told CTV News Edmonton in June.
NDP OPPOSES CHANGE
The Alberta NDP has promised to abandon plans for a provincial police force if elected in the spring. “The cost of getting rid of the RCMP and creating a provincial police force is money that should be spent simply on increasing support to reduce crime in our communities,” Leader Rachel Notley said Wednesday. “What will be lost in this process is the primary goal of reducing crime, preventing crime, fighting crime?” Ellis’ mandate letter also directs him to “work with Indigenous, mid-sized and rural communities” to address high crime rates and review the training of Alberta sheriffs so they can engage in a “broader field of policing.” “When you call 911 in rural Alberta, we’re going to make sure someone shows up,” Ellis said. With files from Saif Kaisar of CTV News Edmonton, The Canadian Press and St. Albert Gazette through Ihe Local Journalism Initiative
