By Sheldon Spackman

Working Well, council says

Penhold council voices strong support for RCMP over provincial police force

Mar 17, 2021 | 11:51 AM

Penhold town council is voicing its strong support for having Alberta stick with the RCMP instead of moving to a provincial police force.

During its regular meeting last week, council voted to approve sending a letter to Premier Jason Kenney conveying that message, and requesting the government forego exploring a provincial force.

Mayor Mike Yargeau says council feels the town currently receives good value for the service being provided by Innisfail RCMP.

“There’s a lot of concern amongst council and myself with the potential move to an Alberta Provincial Police force,” says Yargeau. “Nothing is official from the province, but it is something they are looking at. I mean the costs are looking to be astronomical for absolutely no change in service.”

Yargeau feels the government needs to think hard about what they’re doing.

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“It is not a good idea to switch to a provincial police force just based on cost alone, to be honest,” he suggests. “The amount this would set Alberta taxpayers back would be huge. This would be the first time in essentially modern history that a province has moved to a provincial police force when Ontario did it quite a number of years ago. I believe over 100.

“I’m very concerned that at the end of the day, this is only going to affect taxpayers,” he cautioned. “The way the provincial government is going, they’re taking this money from municipalities and we’re collecting it on their behalf and that’s not sustainable. Municipalities can’t be on the hook for that.”

The Town of Penhold will pay approximately $90,000 for Innisfail RCMP services this year. That amount, however, will go up to about $160,000 in two years.

“It was about $60,000 last year, $90,000 this year, and then after four years it’s supposed to stay at $160,000 until the province increases it again,” notes Yargeau.

Aside from a desire for more officers in town, Yargeau says the community has a great relationship with Innisfail RCMP.

“They do a great job. They’re limited with what they can do because they need more officers too, but switching to an Alberta police force doesn’t change the problems, it just puts a different uniform on them. We’re as happy as we can be with the Innisfail detachment.”

In other communications with the premier, Penhold council sent a letter to both Jason Kenney and NDP leader Rachel Notley in February, asking that the two parties work together for Albertans in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though council has yet to hear back from Rachel Notley, they recently heard back from Kenney about the suggestion to create a non-partisan COVID-19 response committee.

“From the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Alberta has been taking strong action to protect both lives and livelihoods and bend the curve back down,” wrote Kenney in his response. “Leading these efforts is the Priorities and Implementation Cabinet Committee. This committee meets regularly to review information, data, and advice from all pertinent government ministries, as well as Alberta Health Services and Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.”

Yargeau admits he’s disappointed the two parties are unable to put their political differences aside for the good of all Albertans.

“I see the way our premier and the leader of the official opposition are headed, and I don’t think there’s any desire there on either part for them to sit down and work together and I think that letter shows that,” laments Yargeau. “I was hoping it would get a discussion started even amongst our provincial leaders, but it didn’t seem to. It’s unfortunate that that’s where we are in politics. I think we should be expecting better from them.”