A new piece of provincial legislation is a step towards a continued RCMP contract in Alberta, according to Justice Minister Tyler Shanndro. If passed, the Police Amendment Act will establish a new police review commission to handle complaints against officers. Shandro said though the commission could cost the province around $14 million, it will save money in the long run.
“We also have to remember that as we stand up a new review board to take over code of conduct complaints of a police officer, we are also saving [police services] from having a PSS (professional standard section) in each of their services,” he said. “That’s a significant cost to each of those services so there would also be savings to each of the services by no longer having to do all of that work internally and then instead allowing this new agency to do it so in the end it saves the province by having this one agency doing it, it saves the province a significant amount of money.”
The opposition NDP says it supports civilian oversight in policing, but the proposed commission is lacking detail.
“This legislation gives the UCP government sweeping powers to interfere in local policing commissions and matters. It is a disturbing step towards the politicization of policing from a government that has a record of political interference in law enforcement and the administration of justice,” said Irfan Sabir, NDP justice critic. “The UCP government has downloaded millions of dollars onto municipalities in policing costs in the last three years, and despite significant opposition from the majority of Albertans and municipalities, the UCP remains hellbent on creating a costly provincial police force that they can control and direct.”
“This has nothing to do with the question of whether we should continue with contract policing with the RCMP,” Shandro said, adding the federal government has worked with the province to address problems with the complaint process against RCMP. “It’s not problems we have with the RCMP, it’s problems that we have with the contract with Canada and the ways in which Canada keeps us from fully implementing ALERT for the province, frustrations with real time databases not working together and we pointed out that we exempt the RCMP from civilian oversight over the complaints process.”
The act also includes changes to the Alberta Serious Response Team’s (ASIRT) mandate to include cases involving peace officers employed by the province and municipalities. Police services would also be required to develop a diversity and inclusion plan for their specific community.
