Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin fears the UCP government is determined to pursue a provincial police force despite polling showing the idea has little general support.
Fewer than one in four rural Albertans believe the province should set up its own police force, according to a recent University of Lethbridge poll.
The online poll had 1,470 respondents, including 505 identified as rural. Among the rural contingent, 54 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed with a provincial police force and nearly 23 per cent did not agree or disagree. Only about 23 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with putting provincial police in uniform.
The Rural Perceptions of Policing in Alberta poll was conducted by the university’s Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy and the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA).
Asked whether the RCMP should be dissolved in Alberta, 76 per cent disagreed and less than nine per cent agreed. Fifteen per cent were neutral.
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Provincial police force has little support
McLauchlin said Alberta Municipalities, which represents urban municipalities, came up with similar results when they polled residents in January.
However, two of Premier Danielle Smith’s mandate letters to her ministers, including Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis, listed a provincial police force as a goal.
When asked, Ellis has repeatedly said no decision has been made.
“What I’m worried about is they’re trying not to make this an election issue, and they’re going to do it anyway after the election,” said McLauchlin.
“I want it to be a valid conversation. I really think we need to be honest. If we’re really going down this path, be honest about it and we have yet to hear that response.
“Our hope is this is not a path they’re going to go on, that they’ve listened to what people have to say, and we’ll start working together on judicial reform on all those other pieces.”
Replacing the RCMP would be an incredibly complex process and the ramifications if it did not go smoothly would be huge, he said.
“If they do it, we have to be at the table because if it gets messed up it would be just catastrophic to rural Alberta if they fail. So, we have to help them make it successful if they go down this path, even though we’ve been saying don’t do this.”
There has been little consultation with municipalities to date. A meeting was planned in January and didn’t happen and RMA is on a task force that was created but has yet to meet.