Provincial police force concerns from Lethbridge County

The Alberta government has discussed the potential of implementing a provincial police force which would replace the RCMP. A report last year says the transition would cost $366 million. In 2021, the Alberta government began shifting the cost of policing to municipalities. That resulted in a bill over $350,000 for Lethbridge County to cover policing. This year that cost rose to $469,000. Reeve Tory Campbell from Lethbridge County, says the municipality has some concerns about a potential transition to a provincial police force.

“Our biggest concern to this point is around the costing piece. The PricewaterhouseCoopers report really doesn’t adequately address costing as far as we’re concerned. As well as level of service and the overall impact it would have to our municipality. We feel that we as a municipality have been underutilized and we’ve been left out of the conversation to this point. I think even more importantly, the population of Alberta and the general public has been left out of that discussion.”

The Alberta government has announced community engagement sessions coming up in early 2022 to allow for public input into the potential change. The last time we had a provincial police force was from 1917 to 1932.