National Police Federation president Brian Suave joins Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins to discuss new legislation that could pave the way for Alberta sheriffs to become provincial police officers. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Michael Higgins: How does this latest legislative evolution of the Alberta sheriff’s police service land with your organization? Brian Suave: We’re still confused, similarly to a lot of Albertans, a lot of municipalities, a lot of the elected politicians we talked to and have met with. We’ve had numerous waves of polling from Albertans as well as different organizations across Alberta that don’t understand why the government continues to go down this road. It has been at the bottom of the Fair Deal panel, the Alberta Next panel, [Albertans are] really not interested. They would prefer to look at health care, education and those things as priorities to dedicate resources to. MH: Does this latest piece of legislation put Alberta any closer to replacing the RCMP? BS: I don’t think so. Ultimately if the province wanted to replace the RCMP it has a provincial police service agreement that clearly spells out how they could do that. There’s an opt out clause, and the premier can exercise that opt out clause. It comes with some timelines and comes with some abilities and requirements on Public Safety Canada, as well as the province. They’ve chosen not to go that route. Just recently the Minister of Public Safety committed to contract policing beyond 2032, which has always been a bone of contention with the province of Alberta. That uncertainty. That certainty is there now. Let’s move forward with making a stronger safer Alberta with the Alberta RCMP. That’s what Albertans want. MH: Where do you weigh in on the province saying an additional six weeks of training is what’s needed to turn a sheriff into a police officer? BS: Any police officer or police service or police association will tell you more training is good for its members. They all want to be better at what they do. What we have seen since the creation of the Alberta Sheriff service is that coexistence and working together has worked extremely well. How does the idea of a creation of a new police service, or staffing up new police officers, improve the lot of Albertans in their life? I don’t think it does. It creates a new tax burden. It creates something that’s going to cost more money. The rationale behind it is still unclear, hence why so many people are confused. Yet they continue down this road. MH: Once the sheriffs become a fully operational police service, does jurisdiction become a point of contention? BS: It’s my understanding the Alberta sheriff’s police service would be available to communities that are looking to have them police their space or their jurisdiction. We haven’t seen many municipalities who are interested in moving away from the RCMP. Whether it be the community of Lloydminster or Red Deer or Airdrie. Those communities have already explored this option, or different options, even taken the government’s grant money to explore different options and do different studies. All of them have come back and said, we’re satisfied, we’re happy with the RCMP. In fact, we want more of it. That’s what came out of what we heard from the federal government when they examined contract policing. The majority of jurisdictions across Canada, including Alberta, said actually, let’s get more. RCMP, not less. MH: What is there to be learned from the handover from the RCMP to the new municipal force in Grande Prairie? BS: That city council had a contract directly with the Government of Canada. It was not a contract with the Alberta government. The Alberta government had to deal with Public Safety Canada, so no different than a larger community such as Fort McMurray or Red Deer that has a direct municipal police service agreement with the government of Canada. That particular city council voted to migrate away from the RCMP and go to a municipal police service. I certainly hope they’re successful. I know they had a deadline of the end of March this year. They’ve sought an extension now, towards the end of October. We hope they’re successful, so our members can move on with their careers. How the Alberta sheriff’s provincial service works into that equation, I have no idea. It’s possible they might be used to support Grand Prairie as it continues its transition to municipal police service, alleviating the RCMP from having to continue to support Grand Prairie. Again, unknowns. MH: Is it possible we end up in a scenario where the RCMP and the sheriffs are dueling for attention, and is that already happening? BS: I don’t think that happens. This is not a unique scenario. In Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, you have two provincial police services. You have the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and you have the royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Both coexist, both work well together, and both continue to serve Newfoundland and Labrador quite well. Is that the vision for the Alberta sheriff’s police service? I don’t know. [Public Safety] Minister Ellis hasn’t made that clear. I think he’s just made clear there will be the capacity for a new sheriff’s police service, should a community wish to engage them. From our perspective we haven’t seen many communities interested in transitioning to a sheriff’s police service or away from the RCMP. Which begs the question, why continue down the road to have a police service that may not get utilized?
