Alberta promises 275 more rural front-line officers with provincial police strategy

The Alberta government continues to make its case for aprovincial police force to replace RCMP, saying it would add hundreds of front-lineofficers to small detachments.

The United Conservative government outlined its blueprint formore police in rural Alberta today. It says 275 front-line police officers would be added toAlberta's 42 smallest detachments.

Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said that as it stands, there is nominimum number of officers at RCMP detachments. He said amade-in-Alberta police force would provide better policing for allregions, including improved response times.

"I'm often asked why the government is looking at the idea of aprovincial police service and the answer is simple.We have aduty as Alberta's government to consider whether new and innovativeapproaches to policing can make our community safer," Shandro said.

"We can also make access to mental health, addictions, familycrisis servicesand other specialized police services moreaccessible to all communities across Alberta."

Shandro said the proposed model would have 65 to 85 communitydetachments that would have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 80officers working in them.

The plan also includes service-hub detachments with between 48and 192 officers, as well as three urban detachments to serve largercommunities and function as regional headquarters.

The report also outlines how an Alberta Police Service wouldextend dedicated support to self-administered First Nations policeservices through its service-hub detachments, making it easier forthem to establish and maintain their own forces.

Shandro said the idea of a provincial police force isn'tsomething new nor should the public be concerned.

"The biggest point I would really like to drive home for allAlbertans is both Quebec and Ontario have their own provincialpolice service and look, their provinces have not collapsed," hesaid.

Shandro said the RCMP, as it does in Quebec and Ontario, wouldcontinue to exist but focus on federal policing responsibilities asopposed to handing out a speeding ticket in rural Alberta.

"Cyber-terrorism, human trafficking, organized crime would betheir core functions rather than concentrating on contractpolicing," he said.

"The RCMP, they're kind of like an FBIbut they wear other hatsas well, but that would be a good analogy."

The government is deciding next steps following the release of athird-party analysis last fall of the proposal for an Alberta-runprovincial police force instead of using the RCMP in rural areas andsome smaller cities.

Plan would cost $735Ma year, report says

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report said it costs Albertaabout $500 million a year for the RCMP.

Ottawa chips in $170 million under a cost-sharing agreement.

That report said if Alberta decides to go it alone, it would costabout $735 million each year, on top of $366 million in startupcosts.

But it said there is potential for more cost-effective lawenforcement by using existing human resources and the government'sfinancial services to save money, and by drafting agreements withmunicipal forces to share specialized police services, includingcanine units, air support and tactical squads.

Alberta has not yet made a decision on whether to proceedbutwants to have a transition plan in place if Ottawa decides to endfinancial support for contract policing.

"I think we have to remember ... the federal government haswanted out of that liability since the 1960s, and the opportunity incontinuing to receive that subsidy, quite frankly, has a shelf life,"said Shandro.

Provincial governments in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and NovaScotia are also studying the feasibility of replacing the RCMP.

Earlier this year, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) said itsupports keeping the RCMP and opposes the idea of a provincialpolice force because it fails to demonstrate how it would increaseservice levels in rural areas.

Alberta Municipalities, formerly known as the Alberta UrbanMunicipalities Association, was briefed on the plan but said itneeded more time to digest the information.

But it outlined some concerns about the costs, whether there hasbeen enough consultations, and that a provincial force should bedriven by real public safety needs rather than by politics.

Paul McLauchlin, president of the RMA, said the plan announced Tuesday creates a lot of questions.

McLauchlin said he questions where the money to fund the police force would come from if the province left behind $170 million of annual federal funding. There's also the question of hiring hundreds of more officers.

"This would be one of the largest workforce hires in North American history.Can you actually pull that off knowing that all throughout North America right nowpeople aren't moving and joining police forces."

McLauchlin said Shandro's comments about the province bearing transition costs do not ease his concerns.

"We don't want to spend money. We don't have to. What I hear from my members, we want to use the existing RCMP and the extra resources that are supposedly available should be put into those root causes of crime: substance abuse, poverty, mental health and judicial reform," he said.

The RMA president said the province should consult more with rural communities to see what type of change they really want when it comes to policing, and be more explicit about the exact costs of the plan.

Questions about cost and new hires

Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University, said he has questions about the government's proposal, but Tuesday's report gave a much more detailed picture of the UCP's plan than last year's report.

King said one positive about the plan is the government proposing more support for First Nations police services, which the professor said will give more autonomy to Indigenous communities to establish their own police agencies.

The report also suggested a model for police governance that would involve more community boards for oversight, which King supports.

But hequestionswhere exactly the 275 front-line officers will come from.

"Is that going to be 275 new officers across the total in Alberta, or are they going to take a few from, say, Red Deer and a few from Okotoks and put them into the smaller communities?" King said.

"That's unclear, and boy oh boy, the communities like Red Deer and others would like to know that because it would mean fewer officers for them."

King also said the sheer cost of establishing a new provincial police force is not a "red herring" as Minister Shandro stated at a news conference Tuesday.

"If you went into a car dealership and were looking at a car, it had all the bells and whistles, and you said, 'Boy, that's a good looking car. How much does it cost?' and the salesperson said, 'Well, that's a red herring,' you wouldn't buy the car."

King said it's also important to remember that if the UCP goes forward with its plan, it would likely take about a decade to implement, and a lot can change in that time, including new governments with different plans.

Provincial police plan is 'a boondoggle,' NDP says

Alberta NDPjustice critic Irfan Sabirsaid Tuesday that the government's provincial police plan "is not a blueprint. It's a boondoggle."

"Albertans want better policing in Alberta and want their government to focus on preventing crimes and addressing the root causes of crime. And what the minister has presented, nobody is asking for it," Sabir said.

The NDP MLA said the strategy would cost millions in taxpayer money, and the UCP should drop the plan.

"If they really want this they can put this on the ballot for the next provincial election."

Sabir said the UCP should not be able to dismantle the RCMP while under investigation by the police force, referring to the police investigation into the party's'kamikaze' campaign where donors were potentially defrauded.

Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki, commanding officer of the Alberta RCMP, said in a statement Tuesday that his police force has always been willing to work with the provincial government.

"Our budget and staffing levels are determined by the Government of Alberta, the provincial policing priorities are developed with their oversight and approval, and we report on strategic and budget performance measurements on a regular basis," the statement said.

Zablocki said the government's plan seems "very similar to the current model of the Alberta RCMP."

RCMP's specialized units, like forensic identification and emergency response teams, know "the geographical realities of Alberta," Zablocki said, and are placed strategically in the province.

Alberta RCMP will review the province's report in depth over the next few days, the statement said.