The Keep Alberta RCMP organization will be bringing its provincial community engagement tours to the Peace Region.
The organization has scheduled the following stops in the Peace Region:
March 1- Valleyview & Grande Prairie
March 2- High Level
March 3 – Peace River
March 4 – Slave Lake
The goal of the sessions is for representatives to convince Albertans the province should continue using the RCMP as its main provincial police force rather than creating a new and separate one from scratch.
“The purpose of our engagement sessions is to provide and share some facts and hear from Albertans on their interests, questions, and concerns on this topic,” said Kevin Halwa the Regional Director for the National Police Federation.
“After we have completed our engagement sessions, we will be preparing a summarized report from what we’ve heard from all those people and providing that report to the government.”
Halwa feels if the province does say goodbye to the RCMP, it would be tough for a provincial police service to replicate many of the crucial services being used by the current RCMP.
“For example, our Crime Reduction Unit started back in 2017. That reduced crime in the rural areas by 17 per cent and six per cent in the municipal area,” Halwa explained.
“Things like that are at risk of imploding if we move to a provincial police service. On top of that, there are also all of the other community policing initiatives that are run by the RCMP that are all at risk.”
Halwa added this could have a major impact not just on taxpayers in rural communities, but also across the province.
“The direct impact in communities all over the province will likely see a huge increase in costs,” Halwa said. “Under the provincial policing services agreement, the federal government picks up 30 per cent of the provincial policing debt every year in perpetuity. In 2021, that worked out to be $185 million. Right off the top, the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for making up that shortfall of funding.”
Halwa says there are also extra costs like a “transition fee” that taxpayers would have to pay if Alberta decided to abandon the RCMP.
According to Halwa, he has had discussions with various MLAs regarding the topic of switching to a provincial police force.
So far, of the MLAs he has encountered at the engagement tours, all have been in support of keeping the RCMP.
“Over the past year, we’ve likely talked to hundreds if not thousands of people, and not one of them told us this is a good idea. That same mood and opinion is being voiced in our sessions.”
Halwa adds the biggest question he’s actually heard from people is why the province is still looking into a provincial police force when most people don’t see a need for it?
The entire engagement session list and information on the Keep Alberta RCMP organization can be found here.
