The Alberta government plans to continue consulting with stakeholders about the possibility of forming an Alberta provincial police service and has made no final decision on whether to go ahead with creating the force, says Tyler Shandro, minister of Justice and Solicitor General.
Speaking to publishers and editors at the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association convention in Edmonton on Friday, Shandro said despite opposition from some rural and urban municipal leaders and others, the consultation process will continue.
“We have made no decision on this yet and we are going to continue to engage with municipalities and our Indigenous communities,” Shandro told Great West Media. “This is not going to go away and we are going to continue to have these consultations.
“So when would we be done? I guess it would depend on when I finish these further consultations with municipalities. Most of it is going to be with, I’d say, the small urban and the rural municipalities that felt that they didn’t get an opportunity to be heard.”
The province has been conducting consultations with some municipal leaders and others in recent months following the release of a PriceWaterhouseCooper feasibility report on the possibility of forming a provincial police service to replace the RCMP in Alberta.
The Rural Municipalities of Alberta and the Alberta Municipalities Association – which together represent hundreds of urban and rural municipalities – have both officially come out against the creation of a provincial police service.
“Based on the arguments provided by the province so far, there’s simply no evidence that a switch to a provincial police service will be worth the cost and disruption,” said Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin.
Alberta Municipalities released an official policy position on the matter in April, saying the majority of its member municipalities oppose the creation of a provincial police service.
Shandro says he is well aware of the opposition of some municipal leaders.
“I think there have been a lot of municipal politicians who have said, ‘I’m opposed to it so just put a bullet in it now and stop this conversation’,” Shandro said. “This isn’t going to go away, unfortunately for those municipal leaders.
“You’re right, there were municipal leaders who have concerns, and the biggest concern that they had was they didn’t feel that they were engaged enough.”
Asked if a province-wide referendum will be held before a provincial police service is created, he said, “Again, we’ve made no decisions. We are going to finish our consultations with municipalities and our Indigenous communities because they had the greatest concerns about consultations.
“I expect a government, a future government, will be making a decision about what next steps would be.”
The National Police Federation, which represents thousands of RCMP officers across Canada, has said most Albertans oppose the creation of a provincial police service.
