These people do very important work on behalf of our residents. They often work long and hard hours dealing with the most unpleasant situations in our community. They’re willing to put themselves into danger to make others safe. And many of them are far from home to serve Grande Prairie.

The federal government doesn’t bill the City for the full cost of RCMP services. It covers 10% of the cost of RCMP members. However, this 10% is not meant to subsidize municipal operations. Instead, it is in recognition that RCMP members do some federal duties and can be called outside of Grande Prairie to serve other communities experiencing temporary events which require significant police presence.The federal government does not contribute to the significant civilian support given to RCMP members members.The provincial government also provides limited grants to go towards policing costs. These are equivalent to ~$1.4 million/year. I appreciate that we receive this contribution. However, it is worth highlighting that these grants are all either set amounts or based on per-capita formulas. They are not based on the actual costs of delivering police services. So these grants will do not grow as RCMP costs grow.

Recruitment. There is a risk that recruiting enough quality officers could be challenging, especially if a newly formed Alberta Provincial Police is recruiting at the sametime. We would have to make sure that an MPS was creating a great culture and working to be attractive to new recruits. If an APP does move forward, there would also be benefit to getting going on recruiting local officers before provincial recruitment starts to phase up.

I have the privilege of serving on the Alberta Municipalities Board of Directors. One of the Board’s primary responsibilities is to advocate to government on behalf of Alberta cities, towns, villages, and summer villages. Since is is such a critical municipal service, we have spent a great deal of time working on policing. There have been a great number of conversations with both Ministers and senior staffers. Especial effort has been put into advocacy in regards to a potential Alberta Provincial Police. You can see a summary of those efforts here.

In late 2022, the government passed amendments to the Police Act. You can read about them here. There are still a lot of unknowns in terms of new regulations and the implementation of these changes. But overall, I’m excited about a lot of the changes that were made.

Cost certainty and input. At this point, we don’t have enough information to evaluate the cost of an MPS. There is some reason to believe it would be less expensive than the RCMP. My gut says it would likely be about the same or a little bit more than RCMP service. But under our current model, our community has no say into costs. Over the past five years, Council has had to navigate a $5,000,000 increase to the RCMP Budget without having any say into that increase and with no assurances that cost increases will enhance local services. When making financial decisions, having budget certainty and input are important. With an MPS, we’d have more accurate budget projections. We would also know that any increases were tied to local priorities.

The federal government and RCMP union are heading into another round of bargaining that are likely to further drive up costs. There is no indication of where they might land. This introduces significant risk and uncertainty into the City’s budget process.

In late 2022 the province made a number of promising amendments to the Police Act. You can read about them here. However, a lot of work still has to happen to implement these changes. In the meantime, there are aspects of Alberta policing that are very behind the times.

Under this agreement, City Council gets to set the overall budget allocated toward local RCMP operations. The Mayor also gets input into annual detachment priorities. However, neither Council nor City staff have the authority to give direction to the RCMP or to set its policies and procedures. The City also gets no say in the Criminal Code or most other laws that the RCMP is tasked to enforce. Nor does the City run the court systems that are needed to prosecute cases.

The province has recently made changes to this formula. By 2023, municipalities such as the County will need to pay for 30% of their general police services. This is a good change. But it will still mean that there is a huge disparity between County residents (who will have the province pay for most of their police) and City residents (who will need to pay the full cost of their police).

The province contracts to the RCMP. Municipalities don’t directly acquire RCMP services. Instead, they receive RCMP service under a provincial contract. This provincial contract determines to what degree local communities have a say over their RCMP detachment.

The City is limited in its ability to steer the local RCMP. However, Council has recently taken action to have more community input into policing. It is doing this by forming a Police Advisory Committee. This committee is made up of mostly public members. It exists to provide advice to the RCMP and Enforcement Services, and to give Council recommendations relating to policing. You can see more about what this Committee’s mandate on page 14 of the Boards and Committees Bylaw.

I believe that forming a Municipal Police Service (MPS) is worth consideration. It could have some big benefits. However: it also carries some big risks and we do receive good service from the RCMP. I’m far from having my mind made up about the best way to deliver policing in Grande Prairie. But I think exploring what a Municipal Police Service might look like is a worthwhile exercise.Several of many potential benefits:

The provincial government is aggressively exploring the adoption of an Alberta Provincial Police (APP). If the province moves forward with an APP, it would be unlikely that the City would be able to continue accessing RCMP services. Council would have to decide whether it is best to contract with the APP or form a local police force.

My biggest focus in attending was to advocate for a revision to the Police Funding Framework. As described above, it makes no sense to have City residents pay for their police while the province pays for police in most other municipalities (including urban County developments just outside of City limits).

This also isn’t good for taxpayers. Due to their specialized training and equipment, RCMP members are one of the most expensive ways to respond to social challenges.

The Eastlink Centre, Parks, Transit, Community Groups Funding, and Community Recreation Development, Community Social Development, and Revolution Place; or

Reducing the scope of policing to focus on criminal and urgent safety matters (stop having police fill in for gaps in mental health and social services)

Police are the one community service that will respond on-scene and quickly to any crises situation, 24/7/365. This means that they often end up going on mental health calls not because they are the best type of professional to respond, but because they are the only professionals available.

On this page is more information about policing in Grande Prairie. Towards the bottom, I share the changes I’d like to see happen. As you read this, I hope you’ll give me your feedback: what do you think of our local policing? And how would you like to see it changed?

This money just represents RCMP operational costs. It doesn’t include money spent on Enforcement Services, Mobile Outreach Programs, or the Public Security Units. It also doesn’t include capital costs.

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The Review outlines the weaknesses and opportunities within RCMP policing. This work can be used to make a plan to increase local RCMP effectiveness.

Some think our criminal justice system is too lenient, some think it is too ready to punish those in need of rehabilitation. Some think we have too many police, some think we don’t have nearly enough. Some feel the police lack accountability, some want to see them given more freedom to act. Some want us to get Ottawa out of our policing by ending our RCMP contract, some say they would never trust a municipal or regional police force. Whatever their opinions are: almost everyone I talk to wants change.

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However, the City has decided not to directly deliver this service. Instead, it has an agreement to have the RCMP provide policing. This is done under the terms of a contract the province has signed with the federal government.

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The province is responsible for healthcare and social services. With mental health and addictions taking up a huge amount of RCMP time, provincial programs have a huge impact on local policing.

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Council has completed a Police Model Review Study. The purpose of this study is to compare RCMP policing with other potential models (an Alberta Provincial Police, a Regional Police, and a City of Grande Prairie Police). With this information in hand, our community is equipped to have a productive conversation about what is the best way to deliver police services in Grande Prairie. You can read the review here.

Following, I’m laying out some of the challenges I see with our policing model. But as I do, I want to be clear: these criticisms are not about RCMP Members. They are criticisms of the system our Members work in. I want to see those systems improved, not just for the sake of our residents, but also for the sake of our police officer who work within them.

The amount the City pays for its RCMP service is mostly based on how many RCMP members are in our detachment. The City pays for the salary, benefits, training, and equipment costs of its members. Additionally, the City pays for other administrative and organisation support that is calculated based on the average cost of supporting members across Alberta.

I acknowledge the homeland of the many diverse First Nations and Métis people whose ancestors have walked this land since time immemorial. I am grateful to work, live and learn on the traditional territory of Treaty 8.

Affirm that mental health challenges jeopardize the safety of some residents and decrease the viability of our community;

The province controls the Police Act, which lays out such things as the authority of police, how complaints are handled, and what input local communities have over policing.

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Quality civilian oversight. A good police service requires very strong civilian oversight. If an MPS is formed and the accompanying Police Commission is weak, that would be bad for our community. If Grande Prairie moves forward with an MPS, serious effort needs to be put into recruiting and training the Commission. We should also pay Commissioners for their time to make sure that the position is attractive to strong candidates.

I know that these can be very frustrating situations for our residents. And they are also very frustrating for our RCMP members. However, it’s important to recognize the roll of Charter rights in Canada.

A type of critique I often hear about our police: “that person is obviously a criminal- why aren’t they being arrested?” Or “I can see a bunch of property that was obviously stolen- why aren’t the police confiscating it?”

As explained above, the province has a broken funding model for police. Under provincial legislation, City residents are responsible to fully fund their general policing through property taxes. Meanwhile, County residents have the majority of their general policing paid for from provincial coffers, significantly reducing their property tax bill.

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The province runs the court and jail systems which most criminal cases go through. Municipalities do not get a direct say in how cases are prosecuted and what happens to someone who is incarcerated.

This is especially a problem for those awaiting trial: most rehabilitative services within our prison system aren’t available until after a conviction. Sometimes people are in prison waiting for years, just being warehoused with little to no rehabilitative programming offered. This is a huge opportunity for change which gets missed.

Coordinated Care Campus: the police spend a huge amount of time responding to homelessness. Many of the calls that the RCMP respond to are not criminal in nature: they are just folks that need a positive place to be and a chance to get healthy. Council recently approved the Coordinated Care Campus to get people who are not engaging in criminal behaviour and who are committed to pursuing health into housing while being surrounded by both medical and social support. Getting these people off the street will significantly reduce police dispatches to non-criminal incidents. This will allow the RCMP to put far more focus on addressing behaviours that are criminal in nature.

There is a small chance that the federal government will choose to transition out of municipal RCMP contracts. If it does this, the City will need to find an alternative way to deliver police service.

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The province has delegated significant responsibility to municipalities. But everything municipalities do needs to be enabled by provincial legislation and feed into provincial systems.

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If senior levels of government make major changes to policing, Council may need to make some very big decisions on a very tight timeline. Having pre-work completed will help Council make and implement the best possible decisions.

Direct the Mayor to write to Premier Kenney and appropriate Ministers expressing the local effectiveness of Police And Crisis Team (PACT), various Supportive Housing projects, and other Provincial/City partnerships and asking to discuss further partnership opportunities to invest in mental health, addictions, and housing support; and,

When police do respond to criminal activity, their interventions have limited impact when not backed up by an effective court and prison system. And, too often, those systems fail due to lack of resources.

The provincial government is primarily responsible for policing in Alberta. It is up to the province to establish standards for policing and to ensure they are being met in every community.

In 2017, the RCMP’s budget was only $17,950,000. In the previous five years, it has gone up by approximately 25%, or $5,750,000. To put this increase into context: if it has been passed directly onto taxpayers, it would’ve been equivalent to a 5% tax increase.

Assert that more proactive and preventative approaches to mental health, addictions, and housing would improve our community while decreasing demands on costly police and emergency healthcare resources;

This Committee is made up of 5 members of the public and 2 Councillors. It meets every two months with senior members of RCMP and Enforcement Services leadership to provide advice and collect information. It will also periodically provide advice to Council. You can see its Terms of Reference on page 14 of our Boards and Committees Bylaw.

Financial risk. An MPS is likely to create better cost certainty and control than the RCMP. However, it would leave the City on the hook for any large, unexpected costs that come up. This makes thorough planning crucial. Additionally, the City would take on much greater liability for incidents involving police. This would make strong civilian oversight, recruitment of great people, and excellent training critical to not just public safety but also financial control.

Better integration and information technology. The RCMP operates on different dispatch and information sharing services than Enforcement Services, the Mobile Outreach Program, and other City departments. The RCMP is also slow to adopt and improve new information technologies, such as its online crime reporting portal. By improving integration with other services and IT, an MPS has potential to find efficiencies and better outcomes for its services.

This is especially problematic when demographics are considered. According to Statistics Canada, an average County household makes 15% more than an average City household. And City households are 1.5 times as likely as County households to be single parent led, 2 times as likely to be low income, and 6 times as likely to be visible minorities. It makes no sense to have disadvantaged City residents pay for their own police, and then also pay provincial taxes to help pay for wealthy County households to be policed.

However, nationally, the RCMP has struggled with racism, sexual harassment, and accountability. It has severe and systemic problems that need to be fixed. And this has an impact on our community, especially in terms of public confidence in policing.

The review then describes what an Alberta Provincial Police and a Municipal Police Service might look like. The most important part of the review: a table highlighting the potential strengths of RCMP, provincial, and municipal police services.

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Our courts often lack enough prosecutors, modern processes, and other resources needed to work effectively. This leads to a tremendous amount of police time going into tasks such as filling out paperwork and waiting to testify. And often convictions are severely delayed (and sometimes put at risk) due to inadequate court resources.

In 2019 and 2020, I took part in a number of provincially-hosted round table consultations regarding the Police Act. At that time, the Act had not seen major revision in over 30 years. A number of stakeholders (municipalities, police forces, police associations, first nations bands, community organisations, academics, legal professional associations, and more) were brought together to talk about potential changes. Every group that participated agreed that there are parts of the Act which are hampering the effectiveness of our police: it needed to be reformed.

Because it is so important and so expensive, we need to have more community conversations about our police. Whether or not big change is needed, Grande Prairie would be well served by taking a more informed and proactive approach to its police service.

Most residents (and I’m one of them) have a great deal of respect and gratitude for our individual RCMP Members. However, most of us also see big changes that are needed to the framework these Members work within.

The provincial Police Act requires cities and town of over 5000 people to pay the full costs of their own policing. At the same time, until recently, the Police Act made the province responsible for the cost of delivering general policing to other municipalities, including the County of Grande Prairie. This has created huge disparity.

This arrangement makes absolutely no sense. Especially when you consider County “rur-ban” development just outside of City boundaries.

Civilian oversight is important to policing. It ensures accountability and guides operations to keep our police focused on community priorities. Traditionally, this oversight has been lacking in Grande Prairie.

The Review contains a lot of great information. It includes a detailed overview of current policing in Grande Prairie including a description of all policing programs, an overview of how governance happens, and detailed financials. The Review also highlights both strengths and weaknesses of RCMP policing while providing recommendations to strengthen local RCMP service.

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In July of 2020, I made series of successful motions at Council. You can read my whole Notice of Motion, including background information, here.

However, Council recently approved the formation of a Police Advisory Committee. It is made up of mostly public members, and meets quarterly with both RCMP and City management. Its job is to represent the community to our police, and to have a role in shaping annual service plans. This Committee is a huge step forward. But we still have a lot of ground to make up in terms of providing civilian oversight for local policing.

Since these motions were passed, Council has made significant progress on addressing mental health with non-RCMP resources. Two very significant changes:

There is a big difference between the funding of police in the County and in the City. This is a big reason our residential property taxes are so far apart.

There has been a lot of talk over the last three years about policing and mental health. I don’t know if these conversations have done much to shift my thinking: I already saw huge problems with our current approaches. However, these conversations HAVE made me think there might be more political will now to make changes. As I expanded on above: the police are often called on to fill gaps in our mental health system. This doesn’t create good results for residents, and it is a very inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. It also isn’t what most of our police officers signed up to do.

Following is information about policing in Grande Prairie. At the end of this page, I also share my view of where we need to go in the future.

But a bigger problem with this arrangement: County neighbourhoods like Westpointe are closer to the RCMP station than City neighbourhoods like O’Brien. It makes absolutely no sense for a Westpointe resident to have their police paid for by the province, while an O’Brien resident has to pay for their police through municipal property taxes.

Police are the City’s most expensive operational cost. They’re also one of the City’s most front-facing programs. According to the 2022 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, most residents are satisfied with local policing and feel safe in Grande Prairie. However, 29% expressed dissatisfaction with policing and 38% didn’t describe Grande Prairie as feeling safe and secure.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns: I’d love to hear from you. My number is 780-402-4166 and my email is dbressey@cityofgp.com.Thanks for reading!-Dylan

It makes complete sense that someone in La Glace would pay less for police than someone in the City: La Glace residents get less police service. However, those residents should still probably pay for the level of service they do receive.

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The police have a very high bar of evidence they need to have before someone can be arrested or property can be confiscated. Having un-provable suspicion often doesn’t allow police to act. Some would like this to change. However, it’s important to note: this would require significant re-vamping of federal law. Our local police cannot change the standards that are set upon them (nor can City Council).

The Mobile Outreach Program: there are many types of minor complaints that need to be addressed, but don’t need to be addressed by the RCMP. Examples include public intoxication, loitering, and encampments. Formerly, the RCMP were being dispatched to these complaints. This was a very expensive resource for taxpayers to deploy, and RCMP often did not have the time to properly respond. In late 2020, the Mobile Outreach Program to respond to these calls instead. It has responded to thousands of dispatches, and has received very positive feedback from citizens and businesses. It is leading to better outcomes while requiring less funding than RCMP response. (Important note: the City also maintains Police And Crises Teams made up of RCMP members and mental health nurses. These PACT teams continue to be deployed to severe mental health incidents where there is a significant safety risk)

Part of this lack of civilian oversight is outside the City’s control. The nature of the Provincial Police Act and of the Province’s contract with the RCMP limit how much say local communities can have over their RCMP detachment.

Develop experienced civilian governance in our local community. This will be critical if we ever decide to explore forming a municipal or regional police force

Increased police experience. A huge issue we have with RCMP policing is recruitment and transfers out of our community. At the time of the Review being released, 27/44 constables had been in Grande Prairie for less than a year and half and our front-line patrol members had less than a year of service in the RCMP. Furthermore, 50% of supervisor positions were vacant, being filled by members in an acting role. These are troubling statistics: we need experienced police officers. Many municipal services do a better job of recruiting and retaining than the RCMP. We also don’t have these types of problems with our Fire Department. An MPS may be able to develop more experienced officers than we currently get through the RCMP.

The Police Service Model Review was first presented to Council on September 26, 2022. You can read it here. It’s a long read, but the Executive Summary is a short and good high level summary.

A look at RCMP salary increases. “Currently Anticipated” is what was agreed to by the federal government. “Previously Anticipated” is what the City assumed would happen when building its budget. Taken from this staff report presented on Aug 3, 2021.

Police are often called to respond to failings in our mental health care system. This puts them into situations that they don’t always have the time, resources, and training to resolve appropriately. This isn’t good for the people our police interact with, nor for the RCMP members involved.

The City knew that this backpay was coming. So it budgeted accordingly. $3,800,000 has been set aside to pay it.There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the RCMP salary increases. There is no reason for RCMP members to be amongst the lowest paid police in Canada. It makes sense that they negotiated a raise. However: the City is not at the table for bargaining. It gets no say. The federal government has also proved incapable of giving accurate estimates about future costs. When negotiations started, municipalities were told to budget for 2.5% salary increases landing at a 15% increase over 5 years. Instead, the total increase landed at 22%. This left the City scrambling to find both increased operational funds going forward and increased capital funds to cover retro pay.

Criminal Code and other laws and regulations: The federal government is responsible for the Criminal Code which determines what is a crime and is not a crime. Federal frameworks also determine how crimes are investigated, how arrests are made, and how cases are prosecuted.

RCMP operations: The federal government operates municipal policing as a “turn key” service. It recruits, trains, deploys, equips, pays, and supervises all RCMP members. The City gets to decide how much of a total budget to allocate to the local detachment and it can provide input to RCMP leadership. However, it is ultimately the federal government making all decisions about how money is spent and how operations are carried out.

This might make sense when considering truly rural County residents. However, the County has many urban developments right outside City limits. Some of these developments are closer to the RCMP detachment than some City neighbourhoods. It makes no sense to have residents of County developments pay significantly less for their police services than City residents who live minutes or seconds away.

Policing is the City’s most expensive program. For many residents, it is also the most important program the City runs. That means that I’ve spent a lot of my time on Council working on policing issues. Here is some of what I’ve been up to:

We’ve been very fortunate with the RCMP members and detachment commanders here in Grande Prairie: we’ve had a lot of good people in our community.

The RCMP is also a very large, bureaucratic organisation. At times, this has negative impact on local operations. This is especially noticeable when changes are needed or desired: they are often a very long time coming.

RCMP members recently won a court case which gave them the legal right to unionize. Their union then entered into collective bargaining with the federal government. Compared to other Canadian police forces, the RCMP’s salaries were low. This bargaining led to RCMP members receiving very significant salary increases going forward. This will have an ongoing impact on the City’s operational budget. It will also likely require the City to make a one-time contribution to backpay.

Acknowledge that, in Grande Prairie and across Alberta, police are often called to be the sole responders in situations where mental health professionals or other resources should be in place to support or replace police response;

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And many of theses crisis situations police respond to could been prevented. They don’t need to happen if proper mental health resources are made available to the people involved before they hit a breaking point.

From a purely local perspective, the Police Model Review Study is worthwhile. However, it is also important because of conversations happening in provincial and federal governments.

Significantly increased local oversight. Right now, the RCMP does a good job of listening to Council and the Police Advisory Committee. But these local civilian bodies have little real authority over the RCMP: it could stop listening anytime it chooses to. If we formed an MPS, a local Police Commission would have full control over hiring the Chief of Police and over setting the Budget and Service Policies of our police service.

The City is primarily responsible for paying for local police. However, federal and provincial governments do make some contribution, too.

Even if we land on retaining RCMP services, this Model Review is worthwhile. Two ways that it could benefit continued RCMP policing:

Our criminal justice system also fails to have enough rehabilitative measures in place. Often people in prison or jail are dealing with addictions, mental health, or job readiness challenges. And our system doesn’t have the proper resources in place to help. Too often, people come out of incarceration without these issues resolved, and without proper resources and support to get and stay healthy, employed, and housed. This leads to them continuing to be cycled through our justice system, which isn’t good for them or the community and is also very expensive for tax payers.

I don’t have a strong opinion on whether the City should keep its RCMP contract or move to another model of policing. However, conversations like this are just a part of good governance. With something as important and expensive as policing, it is irresponsible to assume “the status quo is the best way forward.”

Direct administration to, in its 2021 budget recommendations, contrast any proposed increases to the RCMP budget alongside alternative investments of similar amounts that could be made into mental health care, addictions support, supportive housing, or preventative community development initiatives.

One major change we need to consider in Grande Prairie: in the next few years, we have very large RCMP increases built into our budget. Some of these increases might be justified and important. But we should be weighing them carefully against other community investments.

I strongly believe that we need better civilian and public input into our local policing. I raised this with Council, which led to Council initiating a Police Advisory Committee. I was the initial Chair of this committee (it is now Chaired by a public member).

Council has not made any decisions about the future of local policing. However, it has seen enough merit in a potential Municipal Police Service (MPS) to continue conversation about a potential change in our police model. To enable these conversations, Council has commissioned a Transition Plan. This Plan will lay out the community engagement, regulatory requirements, financial needs, staffing details, technology, and other operational considerations needed to form an MPS.This Plan is being completed by an outside accounting firm that has significant experience and reputation in working on municipal and police budgets. This means that the financial projections within it will be very credible. However, it is not just looking at finances. All aspects of policing are being examined. As part of this work, significant public engagement is happening. You can take part here.Council will receive this Plan in the first quarter of 2023. At that time, Council could decide to take steps to move towards forming a Municipal Police Service, decide to shelve the Plan until other levels of government make significant changes to RCMP policing, or decide to shelve the Plan indefinitely. Personally: I don’t have a strong opinion on what should happen next. I’m watching public engagement and looking forward to reading the Transition Plan with a very open mind.

Throughout 2019, the NDP-led provincial government undertook consultations about the Police Act. It hosted a variety of roundtable conversations with many different stakeholders (municipalities, police forces, police associations, legal professional groups, first nations bands, community organisations, academics, and others).