The effort would see Alberta’s smaller detachments staffed with at least 10 frontline officers as part of an overhaul of the province’s policing structure if the government chooses to divest from the RCMP. The government has yet to decide whether to actually go ahead with a provincial police force, but the proposal sets a framework for how one would operate. Under the current RCMP deployment model, some smaller detachments have as few as three officers, the province says. The redeployment plan calls for sworn officers with administrative roles, such as human resources, cybersecurity and other roles that could be performed by civilian specialists, to be sent to smaller departments in rural and remote communities. The proposal also assumes that a provincial police force will acquire building infrastructure and equipment currently used by the RCMP. “This report reveals that the current development model is bureaucratic and highly centralized. By moving to a provincial deployment model, we could add 275 front-line police officers to the smaller 42 detachments,” said Tyler Shandro, Alberta’s Minister of Justice. “We can also make access to mental health, addictions, family crisis services and other specialized police services more accessible to all communities across Alberta,” he said. A report released in October by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests the price tag for transitioning the RCMP would be about $366 million initially, with an annual cost of about $734 million. The proposed plan released Tuesday outlines a structure that would see an Alberta police chief oversee six MPs: an Indigenous policing deputy; deputy for community health and welfare; deputy for corporate services; and deputies for each northern, central and southern division. In addition to up to 85 community detachments, a provincial policing approach would see 20 to 30 “service hubs” to provide specialized services and three “regional headquarters” to oversee smaller detachments. The proposal to divest the RCMP was previously opposed by Alberta’s Rural Municipalities. “Based on the arguments the province has provided so far, there is simply no evidence that transitioning to a provincial police service will be worth the cost and disruption,” says a letter the group sent to Shandro in April. The National Police Federation, which represents about 20,000 RCMP members across the country, has also floated the idea of a provincial police force and launched a “Keep Alberta RCMP” campaign. If Alberta decides to divest from the RCMP, it will take at least two years to create a provincial police force and an additional one to two years to transition detachments away from the RCMP, officials say.
