Alberta public safety mandate letter omits idea of provincial police force, pledges more officers for Edmonton and Calgary
CTV
More police and more sheriffs have been pledged for Alberta streets, but not the creation of a dedicated provincial police force as was ordered by the Alberta government just eight months ago.
More police and more sheriffs have been pledged for Alberta streets, but not the creation of a dedicated provincial police force as was ordered by the Alberta government just eight months ago.
The language in the latest mandate letter delivered by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith emphasizes public safety and community safety for safe streets as her government’s “top priority.”
More patrol officers in the province’s two biggest cities plus additional work for sheriffs are promised in the letter handed this afternoon to Mike Ellis, Alberta’s minister of public safety and emergency services.
Missing from the letter, however, is mention of the creation of a provincial police service, an idea that the United Conservative government first pitched in 2020 to replace the RCMP in communities across Alberta.
An independent report commissioned by then-Premier Jason Kenney’s government a year later on the feasibility of a provincial force suggested implementing one would cost more than $100 million more to run annually than RCMP services.
As recently as November, the government push to create the Alberta Police Service was full steam ahead, with Ellis – who took over the public safety and emergency services portfolio in October – tasked to work with the justice and municipal affairs ministries to launch it.
While Ellis said that his government wants to make sure Albertans “are getting their needs met when it comes to 911, or whatever the police service is going to look like.”
