Provincial police service faces mounting municipal opposition

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 14, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The number of municipalities and organizations in Alberta that have signed a Call to Action from the National Police Federation to keep the RCMP in the province is up to 92.

The Call to Action was originally sent to the Government of Alberta in late June, and has seen a 30 per cent growth since Justice Minister Tyler Shandro indicated that the Alberta Government intends to continue considering whether or not to proceed to create a new provincial police service.

One of the regional directors of the National Police Federation, Kevin Halwa, said it is nice to see the increase in support but not actually surprising.

“From January through April we traveled the province, met with as many municipalities and as many regular everyday folk from across all four corners of the province, and from those conversations it was loud and clear to us that the vast majority of Albertans support the RCMP and support keeping the RCMP as the provincial police service in the province of Alberta,” said Halwa.

He said he assumes those numbers will continue to grow based on his conversations with people from across the province.

“I think some of the delay in getting on to the Call to Action, probably had something to do with summer vacations and less council meetings and what not in some of those areas,” said Halwa.

He said that he has spoken to multiple municipalities after the Government of Alberta launched their website called Future of Policing in Alberta and have noticed that people are growing increasingly frustrated with the government.

“The provincial government still has not answered many of their very simple questions, and they are growing frustrated with the lack of consultation and the ability of the government to actually listen to the municipalities,” said Halwa.

He said one of those questions is in regard to cost coverage for the new police service, as the government continues to say that the municipalities will not have to cover the cost for it.

“So the question becomes, who is going to pay for it? Clearly it is the taxpayers. Does that mean all the taxpayers across the province will see a tax increase to pay for it? I don’t know, because that question has not been answered by the government,” said Halwa.

NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said in a statement that the number of Albertans opposed to a provincial police force grows by the day, as they learn more about the UCP’s costly proposal.

“It’s time for the UCP to start listening to Albertans, scrap their plan for a provincial police force, and focus on improving public safety,” said Sabir.

He added that instead of addressing rising crime levels, the UCP is focused on an unnecessary scheme for a new police force that will cost Albertans hundreds of millions of dollars and do nothing to improve safety. 

The NPF said in a release that it is not just everyday Albertans who are expressing real concerns and opposition to this proposal. The Rural Municipalities of Alberta expressed their opposition earlier this year, and recently followed up to say that they had continuing concerns with how effectively the deployment model will address the RMA’s main policing priorities related to municipal costs, rural service levels, and local input into policing.  

 The release said they are joined by Alberta Municipalities, who recently released an analysis of the proposed Alberta Provincial Police Service as part of their response, highlighting in particular that they had previously expressed concerns with the province’s failure to engage meaningfully with municipalities throughout the APPS transition study, despite the province’s assurances and promises that this would happen.  

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