Step 1: Provincial police force
Really? You are aware that provincial police force is common in Canada and not a sovereignty issue. Is the existence of the Edmonton Police Service an exercise of Edmonton sovereignty?
The RCMP is still active and working in Alberta (they are a federal policing force), they are just no longer forced to provide contract policing for small communities, cities, and regions of Alberta as they are now provided by provincial services. Same with Ontario and Quebec.
Edit: Christ. That “Alberta Unfiltered” youtube channel is a real wackjob nutter magnet (complete with a sweetheart interview with Maxime Bernier).
Well, a provincial police force would bring Alberta into alignment with Newfoundland & Labrador, Quebec, and Ontario. I mean it makes some sense for a wealthy province to step up and do it themselves particularly when the RCMP are beholden to federal laws/workplace standard which can impact responsiveness in a province.
The question really is going to be one of costs. The Albert government in 2021 requested a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers that laid out the current RCMP contract.
Provincial Policing → province pays 70% with the federal government covering the remaining 30%
Municipal Policing → Municipalities pay 70% if <15k population, 90% otherwise with the federal government picking up the remaining 30/10%
1st Nation Policing → Alberta covers 48%, the federal government covers 52%
Total cost was $672 million in 2021 or so. Alberta/Alberta municipalities paying $502M and the federal government the remaining $170M.
So policing costs in Alberta could be set to $672M, meaning the province will have to expand its law enforcement workforce/expenses by 170M. You could argue that efficiencies could get you down 10% but that still an expansion of $110M a year and the report in question flags RCMP pays 15% less than other forces in Alberta.
Does raise the political question of running on expanding policing while hammering healthcare. Crime rates out west are higher than in the rest of Canada so maybe it would be an easier sell.
Link
Naah. Just give the new Alberta Provincial police a budget of ~$450M and tell them to get the job done. It’s the freedumb way.
The only thing dumber than Americans is Canadians trying to ape Americans.
Seriously there @Grey , thanks for bringing real facts to a foodfight.
Hint: Alberta and citizens pay 100% for the rcmp. There is only one taxpayer and Alberta pays more than it gets back. The only question is if the feds will give back funds so that the service is like for like.
@Uzi, having a provincial police force is not a flex. If a province with 38 billion in GDP can manage it, I’m sure Alberta with 452 billion can figure it out.
Missed this but given the RCMP are federally funded and federal funds come from the taxation of Canadian citizens/corporations I’m fairly certain that I, a nefarious Ottawan, pay for a sliver of the RCMP presence in Alberta.
And I’m ok with that by the way
.
Also keep in mind that the RCMP’s top brass have been lobbying the Federal government to separate out their force from having to do all the front-line policing that contract policing forces them to provide.
As far as they are concerned, the RCMP is a Federal Police Service that needs its officers to focus on Federal crime on the national and international scale. They believe they are currently losing too many officers and resources to contract policing.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-federal-policing-structure-duheme-distinct-1.7241797
The RCMP’s federal policing side — which investigates foreign interference, terrorism and other threats to national security, along with high-level organized crime and cybercrime — has been losing regular members over the last decade in order to fill vacancies in the contract policing section.
Mounties in federal policing who are posted to detachments to address gaps in provincial policing are often not replaced, undermining the work of the federal policing unit.
Last year, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians issued a report saying the RCMP’s federal policing mandate is hindered by resource issues and competing demands from the contract policing side.
You, as a nefarious Ottawan, pay absolutely zero for the rcmp in Alberta. And, yes, you are okay with that by the way.
What makes you so sure?
Cite please.
You made the claim that you paid for the RCMP in Alberta. You provide the cite for your position. My argument is that Alberta pays more taxes to Canada than it gets back in services. That is a fact. Any argument that makes the claim that the federal government is subsidizing or giving Alberta anything doesn’t fly. It is just returning our own money back to us.
Now if you want to make the claim that you are paying for the RCMP in some other province, well that might well be true.
First off I’ve provided a cite from an Alberta commissioned review that states the federal government funds 170 million to the RCMP for contract policing in Alberta, and 1st nations in Alberta.
Secondly, I stated the RCMP are federally funded which seems obvious but maybe not?
Finally federal funding comes from general revenue collected from Canadian citizens and again this feels obvious but maybe not.
Given those facts I’m sure you can see how
is factually incorrect.
But it stands that a provincial police force in Alberta would likely have to expand by 170M. Though I think this would not include capital costs like setting up provincial forensic labs, provincial police headquarters and a police academy for training. Actually I suppose the Sheriffs have a training facility but I would guess it would need expansion.
Then there’s the question of ramping up staffing. If the current sherrifs staff sits at 1050 (Alberta Sheriffs Branch - Wikipedia) then expanding it to take on the
2200 sworn and 150 civilian employees (RCMP in Alberta - K Division | LawCentral) is going to be a massive undertaking.
I mean it makes some sense and saves Alberta having to negotiate with the RCMP/Federal government every 20 or so years.
Where does the federal government get its money from? It is returning the money it has already collected from Albertans in services. You take $10 in taxes, you give back $7 in services. The $3 is then split up among other provinces. Really, I’m interested in how you figure you are paying for any service from the federal government delivered in Alberta?
This may shock you, but provinces don’t pay federal taxes. Individuals do. Anyone who pays more than average in federal taxes contributes to federal services delivered all across the country. It’s not inaccurate to say that wealthy Ontarians or BCers are helping to pay for federal services delivered in Alberta. Yes, if you take all the above average Albertan taxpayers and allot their excess tax portions just to federal services in Alberta you’d be covered and then some, but that’s not really how the system works.
Basically you’re just complaining about federal income tax being a progressive tax.
Where do you get the idea that taxes are meant to be fair? You seem to think that for every dollar paid, a dollar should come back. It does not work like that, has never worked like that and will never work like that. There is no fairness equation in the tax laws of our nation. If there was, we would hear about it all the time.
And even if there was, your satisfaction is still not guaranteed because the government of Alberta only cares in the abstract about what you as an individual want. Maybe you want a provincial police force. Someone else wants more money for some ultra-specific aspect of health care. Someone else wants more elementary schools in Calgary. Et cetera. There is nothing to guarantee that every tax dollar that comes back to your province is going to somehow benefit you personally. It is guaranteed that you are going to consider at least some of it (if not most) to be an absolute waste no matter where it goes. So now you’re back to square one except bemoaning the unfairness within Alberta instead within the entirety of Canada.
That is the point of wanting independence. You can parse things to whatever level you want to. We have chosen Alberta as the level we will work for. It is better that money is redistributed within Alberta to improve our citizens wellbeing than being sent elsewhere. Especially to those that work against our interests.
Again, not one penny from a person in another province is being used to fund anything in Alberta through the federal government. Of course I mean funds collected through taxes. We pay more in taxes than we get in services. I’m not sure why you are making a qualitative statement about fairness here when what I have started is factual.
I am an Albertan and I do not want independence. Pretty much all of the other Albertans I know do not want independence. We do not want an Alberta police force. We do not want an Alberta pension. We do not want an Albertan currency. 17% of Albertans whine about becoming a separate nation. Danielle acts like that’s a lot. It’s not. She lets Take Back Alberta dominate the discussion. What the Cons should be whining about is what poor leadership they have. Poilievre ain’t gonna do it for you. Rona Ambrose would be much more effective but she’s not interested. You and the Take Back Alberta crowd need to stop whining about your perpetual losses, Uzi, and figure out how to get along with rest of Canada.