INNISFAIL - The town’s top cop is having difficulty understanding why Innisfail was chosen to join 33 other municipalities across Alberta for a new provincial government plan to combat fentanyl crime.
The new measure, announced Feb. 26 by Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Service Mike Ellis is requesting 34 municipalities, including Innisfail, to unify community peace officer (CPO) and municipal police operations in the fight against fentanyl.
“I would say the CPOs are already aligned with us. In the spirit of unified command, I'm not directing CPO operations on a day-to-day manner but we are working together and collaborating daily,” said Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Ian Ihme, the detachment commander.
The province’s plan is to have more than 800 community peace officers from the chosen municipalities to immediately begin coordinated operations with local police by integrating their communications and dispatch systems while on patrol and when responding to calls.
Alberta's recent increased focus on fentanyl was spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump's initial insistence of adding tariffs onto Canadian goods entering the United States, including energy, because Canada doesn't have a sufficient plan to stop fentanyl and illegal immigrants from crossing the border into the U.S.
The president also cited other reasons for the proposed tariffs, including trade deficits.
In response, the Alberta government invested $29 million for border security.
Premier Danielle Smith also pushed for a “border czar” in the fentanyl fight, which the federal government has since appointed.
The total amount of fentanyl illegally coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico in 2024, as recorded by U.S. border authorities, was 21,889 pounds.
From that total, 21,148 pounds – 96.6 per cent - was seized at the Mexican border.
The total coming from Canada was just 43 pounds, about 0.2 per cent.
In the meantime, Ihme has many questions about the latest provincial initiative to crack down on illegal fentanyl distribution.
First and foremost, he is challenged at to why Innisfail was chosen to be included in the plan.
“I honestly have no idea,” said Ihme. “I originally thought this was maybe based on population size, because I know that the Town of Penhold, which we also police, did not receive this request, but Innisfail did.
“I don't know if it was based on who's the MLA in certain ridings. I don't know how they chose it,” he added. “The whole thing seemed random. I'm assuming there's some reason for it but what that reason is they haven't shared.”
A request for clarification on Innisfail’s inclusion was made by the Albertan to Arthur C. Green, press secretary of the office of the deputy premier and public safety and emergency services, but was not directly answered.
However, Green did say “visible officer presence matters”, and having integrated law enforcement operations increases the “number of boots on the ground” for the ongoing battle against the use of illicit drugs, including fentanyl.
However, and secondly, Ihme said there is no fentanyl crisis in Innisfail; a few cases here and there but no epidemic.
“As far as the most pressing issues we have in the town of Innisfail I would say fentanyl is not really (there) yet. We don't have an epidemic of trafficking of fentanyl in this community,” said Ihme. “Historically, I would say methamphetamines have been a little bit more of an issue for us than fentanyl.
“There's some (fentanyl) and we're continually working on it,” he said. “But in my mind, it's nothing that needs widespread change as far as the CPOs go.”
And thirdly, Ihme is proud of the relationship the local detachment has with the municipal peace officer department, adding he’s already in “constant contact” with newly appointed Protective Services Director Gary Leith.
“We both agree we are already so aligned between the RCMP and the CPOs,” said Ihme. “I don't know what else we would do to use them to combat fentanyl trafficking other than what we already do, other than possibly downloading other non-urgent issues to the CPOs to deal with, which then frees us up for other crimes to work on.
“I don't anticipate any changes to either our operations here locally or the CPOs operations locally, unless the government decides to bring in some other large-scale changes to their authorities and training,” he added.
Ellis said on Feb. 26 community peace officers are not being granted any new powers under the initiative.
Ihme told the Albertan on Feb. 27 the frontline operational policing role will still fall to the police, not to the CPOs.
“If we were doing a search warrant on a fentanyl trafficking residence we wouldn't be using the CPOs for frontline police operational stuff,” said Ihme. “They're not within that authority, and they’re not equipped.”
The Albertan reached out to Innisfail mayor Jean Barclay for comment on the new provincial plan to combat fentanyl but the mayor said she had no comment “at this time” but will comment in the “near” future.
