Augmenting existing law enforcement key to minister's mandate, but provincial police force left off list

Alberta's premier has handed her minister of public safety an extensive list of adjustments to make in law enforcement in the province, but developing a provincial police force was removed from that agenda. 

The public safety and emergency prepardness mandate letter for Minister Mike Ellis asks him to expand training for provincial law enforcement officers, grow Alberta's cybercrimes unit, found a new DNA lab and crack down on guns and gang activity. 

But a controversial proposal made by his government has taken a back seat. 

Launching a provincial police service for Alberta was in the public safety mandate letter issued in November when Premier Danielle Smith named her first cabinet. But there's no mention of an "APS" in the iteration of instructions released Monday, nor is it mentioned in the mandate letter for Justice Minister Mickey Amery.

"I don't care what the uniform is, when somebody calls 911 I want somebody to show up to the call. And increasing the role for the sheriffs is not about replacing the RCMP, it's about augmenting and supporting the RCMP," Ellis said. 

Many municipalities have pushed back on the notion of a new provincial force and it hasn't been popular in polling of the general public either. Other small communities and some First Nations have asked for grants from the government to explore their own policing. 

But expanding that role and training for Alberta Sheriffs is a large chunk of the minister's responsibilities and Ellis wants to explore avenues to adapt policing in Alberta. 

"It would be negligent on my part if I did not explore all the options that are available to us … to make sure that no matter where you live in Alberta that when somebody calls 911 that we make sure that somebody's going to be able to respond."

Shaping up the sheriffs

The mandate letter has Ellis "immediately implementing" the plan to add 100 new patrol officers to Calgary and Edmonton and to assess if more are needed. He's also been asked to look for opportunities to deploy more sheriffs in those two cities. 

Ellis said Monday he wants to upgrade the training and pay scale for sheriffs so they can be used in broader circumstances and brought more in line with police officers.

Alberta Sheriffs are peace officers within a provincial law enforcement agency who carry out courthouse and legislature security, surveillance, traffic enforcement and wildlife duties.

Premier Smith and her government have been working to increase the number and responsibility of the sheriffs since last fall. This year's budget also includes funding for 245 more sheriffs. 

The RCMP issued a statement on the matter late Tuesday.

"As the provincial police service, the Alberta RCMP remains committed to the priority of protecting all Albertans and keeping communities safe, and it is reassuring to see this commitment reflected in the Minister's mandate letter," Curtis Zablocki, the RCMP's Alberta commanding officer, said.

The Opposition NDP says the mandate letter doesn't address the underlying causes of Alberta's public safety issues. 

"There is no plan to improve mental health supports, housing, harm reduction, addiction treatment, and access to training and employment to address the roots of crime," Irfan Sabir, the justice critic, said in a statement. 

It's not just the RCMP that Ellis wants to supplement. His mandate letter also talks about forming a special team of sheriffs to crack down on fentanyl and gun trafficking at the Canada-U.S. border — an area of jurisdiction controlled by the federal Canada Border Services Agency. 

"There's nothing wrong with augmenting and supporting the work that is being done by the CBSA. We're all human beings. They do the best that they can. But quite frankly, there's a lot of it getting through," Ellis said. 

The DNA lab, increasing training for law enforcement teams and initiatives on gangs are all important steps, according to one criminologist, but the length of the to-do list and some of the jurisdictional questions posed by its items could become barriers.

"Canadian border services will let you through and what? You have to go through another blockade or something? That won't work because that'll be unconstitutional," said Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Mount Royal University. 

Nor does King think a full Alberta police force could proceed unless the federal government moves away from contract policing. 

"I think that the force has left the barn in Alberta, as an Alberta initiative."

Many of the measures Ellis is in charge of have been previously announced. 

Electronic monitoring of violent offenders

During the provincial election this spring, Smith promised to bring in ankle bracelet monitoring for violent offenders out on bail and deploy sheriffs to monitor them. Ellis has been asked to implement a "modern" monitoring program. 

Bail is an area that falls under the Criminal Code, which is federal law. Judges already have the power to enforce electronic monitoring as part of release conditions, like they can with weapons bans or curfews.

Defence lawyers also question what it does to the presumption of innocence guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

"Is this dealing with people who have already been convicted and who are back in again dealing with new charges or is this just an assumption that everybody who … hasn't been convicted yet, will they be included in this as well, because those are the people who normally get out on bail," said Shawn King, the vice president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association.  

"It's not meant to prevent crimes from happening. If you want to deal with that, you're going to need to deal with the societal issues."

Ellis will be creating more gang suppression units with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) to focus on gang connections to scrap metal dealers and catalytic converter thieves. 

The premier is asking Ellis to deliver on:

• Expanding therapeutic living units at correctional centres.
• Working with Indigenous and rural communities to address rising crime rates.
• Developing a floor and fire mitigation strategy.
• Modernizing Indigenous policing programs.