Do Alberta communities want their own police? Some are cautiously contemplating it

Policing in Alberta has become a political moving target, with the United Conservative Party government's insistence of a provincial police force giving way to encouraging communities to consider local services.

But amid the bold decision of one Alberta city to phase out the RCMP and questions about the force's current level of service, communities are taking up the government's offer to help them explore options.

"I think all eyes in Alberta are actually on Grande Prairie right now," said Cathy Heron, president of Alberta Municipalities and the mayor of St. Albert. The city in northwestern Alberta voted in March to replace its RCMP detachment with a municipal police service.

It's an appetite for change that the provincial government — which is still interested in creating an Alberta Police Service — seems keen to feed.

'Choose what's best'

Heron made the comment last week at a news conference with Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis to announce a substantial boost in money available to municipalities wanting to study the feasibility of changing how their communities are policed.

Expanding on a program launched in June 2022, the Alberta government is offering grants of up to $30,000 to cities, towns, villages, First Nations and Métis settlements to launch independent studies into replacing contracted RCMP services with a local or regional police agency. There's $6 million available over the next two years.

Ellis said some municipalities have expressed an interest in change.

"That's why Alberta's government is empowering communities across the province to explore different policing options and choose what's best for them." 

While Ellis's office won't name communities that have received the grant, a spokesman confirmed that as of last week 13 had applied — including eight First Nations, one Métis settlement and four municipalities.  Nine grants have been approved. 

One of the applicants is Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta, which includes 23 First Nations located in northern Alberta. Grand Chief Arthur Noskey told reporters last month that his organization wants to study expanding the Lakeshore Regional Police, which serves five First Nations communities in the Slave Lake area.

Two other municipalities that have applied for the grants are Airdrie, located north of Calgary, and the nearby Town of Olds.

Communities seeking data

Both communities say they're being proactive to better understand the issues.

"We're not looking for a change of service," Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown told CBC in an interview last week.

Airdrie received a $30,000 community policing grant to update a similar study it had commissioned in 2020, Brown said. That study, done by consultant MNP, looked at different policing models for the city of about 80,000.

Brown said the consultants recommended Airdrie stay with its status quo — RCMP officers who work alongside municipal bylaw enforcement officials. However, he said, change may be needed as Airdrie grows rapidly.

The grant expected to cover about 75 per cent of the new study's cost, he said.

Brown isn't oblivious to the political timing. 

"I think those funds were allocated or available to municipalities because they were moving very swiftly toward a provincial police force — at least, that's what it felt like to us," Brown said.

In Olds, a community of 9,200 about 65 kilometres north of Airdrie, the grant will help them gather information should the Alberta government move ahead with a provincial police service, said town spokesperson Jillian Toellner. 

Although Olds could not afford its own police service, it's interested in learning how policing is changing, especially with respect to social problems, she said.

"We just want to be informed so that when these changes come, or if these changes come, we will be prepared," she said.

In St. Albert, just northwest of Edmonton, the city council is pondering a regional police service but hasn't applied for a grant, says its mayor. It supports the continued use of the RCMP. 

"Having a municipal force is a path for them to take RCMP out of Alberta," Heron told reporters earlier this month.

She added that a consideration for municipalities with RCMP detachments is the looming end of contracted policing agreements in 2032. The federal government intends to assess the contract policing model, which affects Canadian municipalities everywhere except Ontario and Quebec.

Grande Prairie began raising concerns five years ago about the financial pressure the RCMP model was putting on the city. In its March vote to phase out the RCMP, reduced costs were cited as a benefit.

The province is giving Grande Prairie nearly $10 million to aid with transition costs, estimated at $19 million. 

During last week's announcement about community police grants, Ellis pointed out that his government still likes the idea of an Alberta Police Service but also wants to support communities interested in creating a municipal or regional service. 

"These things are not mutually exclusive," Ellis said.

The province maintains a website that explores the idea of a provincial police force.

Ellis said it's prudent to plan ahead, given uncertainty around the federal government's plans for contract policing beyond 2032.

He also rejected the suggestion that encouraging the formation of regional and local police is a backdoor route to creating provincial police.

Changing the message

Public opinion surveys and advocacy group statements suggest Albertans aren't embracing the idea of a provincial police service. 

In 2022, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and Alberta Municipalities both passed resolutions rejecting the idea and supporting the continued use of the RCMP. More recently, a February survey conducted by Leger for RMA and the University of Lethbridge suggests more than half of rural Albertans opposed the creation of a provincial police service. (The sample from the online survey had more female respondents and an older average age than would be expected for the region).

However, there are other reasons communities might consider an alternative to the RCMP.

Costs might be one factor, said Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Calgary's Mount Royal University.

Alberta municipalities have just been hit with a collective $60-million bill for RCMP back pay for a deal the federal government negotiated with the union. The federal government is giving them two years to pay but won't cover any of the cost.

King said some municipal leaders may think they could save money and have more control with their own police service. That thinking would be short-sighted, he warns.

Some smaller Alberta communities, such as Taber in the south and Lacombe, just north of Red Deer, have created their own police services but it's not simple, he said, requiring vehicles, buildings, equipment, training facilities and the means to cover transition costs. 

King said the shift in government messaging could have three drivers: to reduce the presence of RCMP in the province, to reward municipalities for helping them do this, and to get the unpopular idea of provincial police off the radar before the May 29 provincial election.

Temitope Oriola, a University of Alberta criminology professor, agreed that UCP may also be trying to change the channel, perhaps because they didn't expect so much pushback to the idea of provincial police.

He said some communities may apply for the policing grant to keep the RCMP on their toes and expects other municipalities will follow Grande Prairie's lead in pursuing a replacement.

A transition might be worth the upheaval if a community uses it as an opportunity to further professionalize the police, demanding higher levels of education and training for officers, Oriola said.

But, he adds, "I do not think it is worth it if we're just going to replicate what already is."