OLDS — Town councillors want to find out what all the ramifications of a provincial police service versus the current RCMP service would be for the town, then discuss those implications among themselves.
After that, they say, that information should be relayed in in a town meeting ahead of the upcoming civic or next provincial election, when a referendum on that choice is expected to be on the ballot, so residents can make an informed decision.
Those thoughts were expressed as council received a letter on the matter that Edson mayor Kevin Zahara, sent to Justice Minister and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu.
At Premier Jason Kenney’s behest, a study is being undertaken to determine the pros and cons of the Alberta setting up its own provincial police service rather than the current system of utilizing the RCMP.
Copies of Zahara’s letter were sent to Kenney, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver and Alberta RCMP commanding officer Curtis Zablocki, among others.
In his letter, Zahara questioned the idea that a provincial police service would be cheaper for municipalities than the present RCMP service.
“While the province suggests that the switch from the RCMP to an Alberta Provincial Police Service (APPS) will not cost municipalities more financially, we do not believe this is realistic,” he wrote. “Who will (bear) the cost of this service?”
Zahara noted RCMP work out of a federally-owned building in Edson. He suggested if a provincial police service is formed they would have to operate out of a different building. He questioned who would foot the bill for that new facility.
“It does not seem feasible that these costs would not end up being borne by the municipality and their residents and that these would not exceed the current costs of providing RCMP services, given the significant investments that would be required and the loss of federal funding,” he wrote.
“Currently, the RCMP is our largest budgetary item, and this cost only keeps growing as the provincial government takes away sources of revenue and downloading additional costs to us.
“It seems more realistic that it would only be a matter of time before more costs were downloaded to municipalities for operation of the APPS.”
Olds councillors also expressed reservations about how much a provincial police force would cost versus the present RCMP service.
Coun. Mary Anne Overwater said councillors should gather all the information on that topic it can – pro and con – then have a really good, in-depth conversation on what they've found out.
Then, she said, the town should host a meeting -- perhaps this summer -- to inform citizens about what they’ve learned so they can make an informed decision when the question comes up on the ballot.
“This is a hot topic and I think we really need to seriously sit down as council – or at least engage our citizens as to what they think is the best for our community,” she said.
Other councillors thought that was a good idea. Mayor Mike Muzycha said the topic could “certainly” be added to an upcoming council meeting.
Coun. Heather Ryan pointed out that in his letter, Zahara also said the provincial government sent Edson a bill “with little or no notice” for certain expenses that he said are not a municipal responsibility.
He said that bill, along with other downloads of responsibility from the province to municipalities forced Edson to increase its taxes by three to four per cent.
That really disturbed Ryan.
“That the province would actually do this is incredibly alarming to me, because first of all, you would never have budgeted for that because it was never something that the municipality had to pay for,” Ryan said.
"All of a sudden you’re getting a whopping bill for something that’s totally out of your hands,” she added, suggesting the town and/or Alberta Urban Municipalities Association should support Edson in any fight over that issue.
Councillors suggested Muzychka should raise the provincial police versus RCMP matter during the next meeting of the south central Alberta mayors’ caucus. Muzychka said he would.
