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New RCMP contract under reviewBy Trevor BuschFor The NewsAlberta has taken a step towards a new contract to maintain the RCMP as a provincial police service, with the endorsement of an agreement to keep the national police force in Alberta until March 31, 2032.It was anticipated the endorsed agreement would be approved by the federal government after review later this spring, but the current federal election will likely postpone any ratification of the contract until mid-year. The current contract between the province and the RCMP is due to expire in 2012.The 20-year length of the contract was desirable to both parties, due to financial-investment issues.“It’s that length on paper, but there are exit clauses, as any contract has,” said Frank Oberle, Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security. “But it’s a massive capital investment, if nothing else, in detachments and equipment, and I think on both sides they want some assurance that it’s going to be a long-term relationship. Historically, they’ve been 20 years.”Oberle is hopeful the pending federal election will not lead to a reversal of the negotiation process.“What happened at the provincial level is the government has reviewed it, and allowed me to enter into a contract with the federal government based on that. Now, we’re waiting on, of course, what happens with the federal election — we couldn’t quite get it in under the wire.”Some major changes under the new contract will see the province exerting more control over the objectives, priorities and goals of the RCMP in Alberta, with an added emphasis given to information sharing, planning and reporting.“I think there’s a lot more provincial oversight now,” said Oberle. “Over the past years, we’ve had an external review. KPMG looked at the value that we get from the RCMP, and some of the issues around RCMP policing, and we wanted to incorporate those into the contract negotiations, and we did.”The transfer and movement of officers to and from different postings within or outside the province will now be subject to existing provincial criteria.“On the one hand, we have to recognize that the RCMP is a national police force, they have to operate under national standards and have a uniform national training program because they have to move officers back and forth — and that’s fine. But we wanted some strict criteria around how and when they could move officers back and forth, and what role the province plays in that. So, they now have to adhere to or exceed any provincial standards that we have under the Police Act,” said Oberle.The agreement maintains the current cost sharing between the province, at 70 per cent, and the federal government, at 30 per cent, and the federal government has approval to enter into arrangements with provincial municipalities for the RCMP to provide local policing.“We have an accommodation program whereby the federal government builds detachments, and we participate in the cost-share of that. The new contract will actually have us gaining equity in those buildings, so at the end of the contract, we will own 70 per cent of all the capital infrastructure that the RCMP has built. So, in the event that we were to dissolve, moving forward, we would have an actual equity stake in all of that infrastructure. We have been able to expand our 70-30 cost sharing agreement — I have a number of sheriffs that do what is described as provincial policing work, traffic enforcement, for example, or organized crime enforcement on the ALERT teams. The 70-30 cost share covers some provincial resources, which was never the case before,” said Oberle.Although Oberle admitted the idea of a totally independent provincial police force for Alberta, similar to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), has been considered before, the cost to move in that direction would be prohibitive.“It’s been discussed a couple of times, but I’m not aware of any very detailed cost analysis of the benefit of a provincial police force versus a national police force. The 70-30 cost share number puts that to bed right there. The KPMG report did identify that it’s more expensive to put an RCMP officer on the road than a provincial police officer, simply because of the training, the enhanced authorities and all of the things that they have relative to our sheriffs. But when you take into account the 70-30 cost split, there’s a huge financial advantage to the province, that I just can’t see us overcoming. Certainly any numbers that we’ve run internally — there’s no way that you can beat that with a provincial police force.”Right now, the RCMP is a more logical and cost-effective fit for the province, according to Oberle.“I think RCMP officers offer us some tremendous advantages, first of all, a national presence — organized crime doesn’t respect our provincial boundaries. Second of all, I’ll freely admit, I’m one of the people whose heartstrings are plucked by the RCMP — they’re a Canadian symbol, and I think they’ve served with great honour in this province.”
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The Sunny South News
Coaldale, Alberta, CA
Tue, May 10, 2011
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CA 12 Jul 2024
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