Rural communities keen to work with RCMP: association

Alberta’s rural municipalities have voted to support the RCMP in the province rather than switch to a provincial police force.

In March, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) met and voted to support the RCMP and said they didn’t want municipalities to face increased costs to support the shift to provincially-run police force.

Paul McLauchlin, president of RMA, said rural communities want to work with the RCMP to fix any problems to help make policing better in the province.

“What they [want to] concentrate on is all about the judicial system, catch and release. Let's put our energy into making a better judicial system and then dealing with all those other root causes of crime,” McLauchlin said.

“That's a way better way to spend our energy than trying to create our own police force.”

The previous week Alberta Municipalities — an organization which represent the villages, towns, and cities in the province — met and also voted to support the continuation of the RCMP in Alberta rather than move to a provincial police force model.

“I hope it's a strong signalling, but I have no idea [what will happen],” McLauchlin said.

“[Ministers] keep telling me we can get more officers for less money. That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Right now it is difficult to even hire officers, McLauchlin said, and if the province were to switch to a provincial police force, it would be one of the largest recruitments of public service workers in Canadian history, “at a time when there's tremendous workforce shortages everywhere, let alone RCMP. So if you wanted to get high-quality people at this time in North America, as it relates to policing, you are just not going to hire them,” McLauchlin said.

The plan for a provincial police force was suggested in the provincial Fair Deal Panel, a report released in February 2020 after consultation with tens of thousands of Albertans.

Since then, dozens of municipalities across the province, including Morinville, Bonnyville, Sundre, Crowsnest Pass, and St. Albert, have spoken out against establishing a provincial police force.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has promised municipalities they won't pay more for their police services through a provincially-run model. 

McLauchlin said that while a shift may not cost municipalities more money out of their budgets, there is only one taxpayer in the province.

The president said rural communities feel like they have access to and influence on local police forces and communities feel like they have a good relationship with the RCMP.

In the fall, then-Alberta justice minister Kaycee Madu said the provincial police force would be more cost efficient by using existing provincial government services, such as human resources and financial services.

“Ultimately, my goal is to ensure that we have safer communities and more cost-effective policing in our province,” Madu said to rural reporters in a press conference.

The move will give Albertans more control with how the province is policed, Madu had said.

Right now, it costs the province around $500 million annually for RCMP services, with the federal government kicking in $170 million in a cost-sharing agreement.

If the province decides to pursue a provincial police force, it will cost $735 million annually, on top of the start-up costs estimated to be a minimum of $366 million.

Two models were suggested in the report, with one coming in at a higher cost and relying on police with more training and combining the provincial sheriff’s service with the new police force.

The report said the police force would be overseen by a commission made up of two government representatives, along with people from rural and Indigenous communities.