Provincial Police Service Proposal On-going Issue

Provincial Police Service Proposal On-going Issue

Michelle Pinon News Advertiser

The Government of Alberta’s initiative to replace the RCMP with an Alberta Provincial Police Service (APPS) has been in and out of the news since November 2019 when Premier Kenney made the announcement of possibly implementing a provincial police force during a keynote address at the Manning Conference in Red Deer.

One municipality that is not in favour of the idea is the Town of Morinville that has sent a letter to Kaycee Madu, the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. The Mayor of Morinville Barry Turner sent a letter to the Town of Vegreville asking council to lend its support. The request was discussed during Vegreville town council’s April 26 meeting. In his letter, Turner stated, “Our opinion is that there are other more effective ways to achieve the outcomes identified through the Police Act review.”

Turner said there were several considerations that cause “justifiable concern” and that 65 percent of respondents to the Fair Deal Panel were not supportive. He said the necessity for the new model is unclear given there is little substantiated dissatisfaction with the RCMP.

As well, Turner pointed out that transition costs are poorly understood and ongoing operating costs will inevitably rise. He said there has not been compelling evidence that an APPS would result in better outcomes given expected increase in policing costs.

Similar concerns were also raised in a letter sent to council by County of Paintearth Reeve Stan Schulmeister. He said they were satisfied with the level of service and degree of responsiveness in the county.

“Council echoes and encourages the Government of Alberta to abandon the transition study and redouble efforts to work with the RCMP to achieve better outcomes,” stated Schulmeister.

Vegreville Mayor Tim MacPhee said, “I want everybody to know right now that in our community we have no problem with the RCMP and the way they’re policing.”

MacPhee said he didn’t know if they’ve received enough information one way or the other, but encouraged his colleagues to weigh in on the issue.

Councillor Dave Berry stated, “I don’t have sufficient information right now that I want to try and make a decision for or against this. I would like to wait and obtain

more information on this. The information that we’ve received so far is that they could do this and they could do that. I don’t recall adequate pricing between the two options neither.”

Councillor Taneen Rudyk stated, “So, I would say that based on the information that we’ve shared in the AUMA study groups that they provided for a variety of different reasons I would be in favour of writing a letter, but I think this council has a lot of different opinions and I think it would be difficult for us to write a letter of endorsement at this time.

That said, I do feel like we have a good working relationship with the RCMP locally. We had a great conversation with our local detachment last time and I’m very hopeful that we can make improvements to some of the things we see locally important to the safe and effective operations in our community and we continue to seek partnerships that are valuable.”

Council did not make a motion to support the letters, and only to receive and file them as information.