Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews says the province is looking for the most affordable way to increase safety across the province, and for now, that means a provincial policing service is off the table.
Alberta’s budget delivered on Tuesday, just four months after Danielle Smith became premier and three months before a spring election, would leave the province with a $2.4-billion surplus by March 2024.
The budget provided cash for municipalities to provide their own police service, but no money for the provincial policing service Smith said she supported during the UCP leadership race last summer.
Toews said the government is increasing spending in public safety by 13%, but the plunge to a provincial service “is off the table.”
“We’re looking for the best bang for our buck to increase safety (and) reduce crime,” he told Global News.
“It’s not been budgeted in this plan… in the meantime, we’re investing in additional enforcement officers, more boots on the ground.”
A 2021 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, commissioned by the province, said the RCMP costs Alberta about $500-million a year. Those costs would rise to $735-million annually for a provincial service, on top of $366-million in startup costs, the report found.
A provincial police service has long been debated as a means to give Alberta more autonomy. It was recommended in the provincial government’s Fair Deal Panel Report released in June 2020.
The province has begun work to ensure Alberta can transition to a provincial service in case the federal government ends RCMP contract policing or reduces subsidies when current policing agreements expire in 2032.
Ottawa contributes $170-million to the Alberta RCMP under the current agreement. Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are also studying the feasibility of a provincial service.
In his new mandate letter, Public Safety Marco Mendicino has been directed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to conduct an assessment of RCMP contract policing in consultation with provinces, territories, municipalities and Indigenous communities.
And in June 2021, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security released a report recommending that the federal government explore the possibility of ending contract policing and work with the provinces and municipalities to help those interested establish their own services.
Toews also said the UCP “inherited” a government with a spending problem. Alberta in 2022-23 is no longer a “spending outlier” among Canadian provinces, he said, allowing the province to spend more on healthcare.
“We’ve done the heavy lifting fiscally, which allows us to make strategic reinvestments in health (and) education.”
If passed, the $68.3 billion budget would raise expenses by $2.6 billion to $68.3 billion, marking an approximately 4% increase in spending from its forecasted expenses for the current fiscal year. New funds will result in 7,600 new government workers, mostly in health care and education.
