MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Council has received an update on the provincial Municipal Police Transition Study Grant (MPTAG) program, which would financially help municipalities to examine the possibility of forming their own police force or a force with partner communities.
The review came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting, held in person and online.
“Municipalities in Alberta can now apply for a one-time grant of up to $30,000 to develop a business case for their own self-administered police service or regional equivalent,” said chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes.
“The government of Alberta indicates that the grant is intended to provide financial assistance to Indigenous and municipal communities preparing a business case outlining local needs, capital requirements and transition considerations.”
The Town of Olds has applied and received funding through the program, and through the Municipal Area Partnership -- which has representatives from area municipalities -- has asked if any other Mountain View region municipalities want to apply and pool resources to conduct a regional study, he said.
Mountain View County does not have an RCMP detachment, relying on detachments based in Olds, Didsbury and Sundre to patrol county areas.
Coun. Gord Krebs said council should have a conversation about whether the municipality supports retaining the RCMP in the province.
The UCP government has been examining the possibility of forming an Alberta Provincial Police Service.
“Until you have to deal with the RCMP, I don’t think you realize the absolute ignorance and incompetence and lack of accountability that we are dealing with,” said Krebs. “So for me, $30,000, three-hundred million dollars, is cheap to get the message across that we are done with this.
“We are going to get the message to somebody that they are going to have to be accountable to the people that are paying their salaries. So to me that’s what it is all about and to spend $30,000 to investigate it is money well spent.”
Krebs has filed an official complaint with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP following a two-vehicle collision that seriously injured his adult son. Krebs is acting as his son’s advocate in the case.
Coun. Greg Harris said, “This (the MPTSG) is nothing, in my opinion, but a thinly veiled attempt to say that municipalities support the province’s position on a provincial police. Thirty-thousand dollars is nothing in an amount to look into what it’s supposed to do; the cost would be ten times that, if that. I’m not in favour of giving them any support whatsoever.”
Coun. Alan Miller said he would not support having the county apply for the grant.
Administration had proposed an alternative motion that the county apply for the grant.
In the end, council voted to receive the report on the grant program as information.
