Alberta has ‘2 provincial police forces’ Smith says, while suggesting new sheriff detachments

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed Thursday that the province now has two police forces: RCMP and Alberta Sheriffs.

Smith, who addressed the Alberta Municipalities Convention in Red Deer, said RCMP left her government no choice but to elevate the sheriffs with more training and more assignments in both urban and rural Alberta.

“The reason we’re doing it is because the RCMP has not been able to fulfill the need that we have,” Smith told reporters after she suggested on stage that sheriff detachments could soon be established in rural communities.

“We pay for 1,911 [RCMP] officers and they have 400 or 500 vacancies. We cannot allow for rural municipalities to be under policed and so we have trained up our sheriffs so they have the same training as police.”

Two years ago, municipal leaders with Alberta Municipalities voted to reject the UCP’s provincial policing model and expressed concerns regarding additional startup and operational costs.

However, ABMunis President Tyler Gandam said Thursday he was happy to Smith expand the role of sheriffs.

“I think anytime we can increase safety in our communities, it’s important. People won’t generally care what the badge on the door says when a police officer shows up,” Gandam said while addressing the media.

Smith and the UCP have been increasing the power of sheriffs for months, recently adding a new fugitive team in Calgary and new surveillance units in rural Alberta.

The province’s own Fair Deal Panel concluded that two-thirds of Albertans did not want a province police service and the UCP removed it from their election platform last year.

Despite that, Smith insisted this is what rural Albertans want. She offered the example of Grande Prairie replacing the RCMP with their own police as an example and said as many as 20 other communities have expressed interest in doing the same.

“The people to ask are the people who are being policed by the RCMP,” added Smith.

“The people who are being policed by the RCMP are demonstrating to us, through the decisions they’re making, that they’re very interested in looking at an option that will make sense for them.”

The NDP says it is completely wrong for Smith to “kinda sorta” announce a new provincial police force in this way, instead of consulting with Albertans, showing them the details and holding a policing-specific media announcement.

Leader Naheed Nenshi believes improving RCMP service in rural Alberta is a better plan and said that’s what citizens have told they government they want to see.

“Taking on an Alberta provincial police force is the height of financial lunacy. It’ll just cost so much money and it’s not at all clear that it will solve any of the problems,” Nenshi said.

Smith did not specify if elevating the sheriffs will lead to the end of Mounties in Alberta or not.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis has previously stated sheriffs need to be ready for more responsibilities in case the RCMP pulls out of contract policing when its deal with Alberta expires in 2032.