Municipal Police Service (MPS)

This page was last updated on March 4, 2023 prior to Council making the decision to transition to a Municipal Police Service.

Since then, I have published a blog post about the Council meeting where the Transition decision was made. You can read it here.

Following is more information and opinions from one Councillor. Before reading this, I would encourage you to checkout this Q&A put out by the City.

If you really want to dig in, you can also read the Police Model Review presented to Council in September and watch the Council meeting where it was debated here. Then you can read the Transition Plan presented to Council last week and watch Council’s first opportunity to ask questions.

Police are the City’s most expensive operational cost. They’re also one of the City’s most front-facing programs. This makes it vital for Council to be sure we have the best police service possible.

In Grande Prairie, we have good, dedicated and professional individuals providing our policing services. However, the RCMP is designed for federal and rural policing. As our community grows in size and complexity, there are challenges to the RCMP contract model.

Over the last five years, RCMP contract costs have been putting an unpredictable and increasing strain on the City’s budget. Due to declining recruitment numbers, there are growing concerns across the country about the long-term viability of RCMP police contracts with midsized cities. Council frequently hears from residents who don’t feel safe in our community or cite property crime as a major detractor from their quality of life. And compared to other cities, Grande Prairie has a high Crime Severity Index.

Council has put a lot of effort into improving community safety and policing. To do that, Council and City staff have been spending a great deal of time talking to RCMP leadership. We established a Municipal Police Advisory Committee so that non-political community members could also have a strong voice. We have pulled together an Opioid Response Task Force, helped create the daytime shelter, and supported agencies working to improve the mental health of residents. We have invested heavily in the Mobile Outreach Team, Public Security Unit, and other resources that free up RCMP resources. And we have advocated strongly for improvements to the justice and mental health systems.

However, as we frequently do with City services, Council also asked if there might be better ways to deliver this service. With something both as important and expensive as policing, it was seen as good governance to examine if our current model is best for the community.

In 2020, Council voted to launch an exhaustive review of our policing model. We wanted to find out what were the upsides and downsides of contracting to the RCMP for policing, what impacts an Alberta Provincial Police force would have on us, and if a Municipal Police Service (MPS) was worth exploring.

This review included a detailed look at the current state of policing in Grande Prairie, engagement with our local community, and visits to municipal police forces across the country. That review was presented to Council in September of 2022. You can read it here.

Based on this review, Council saw merit to further exploration of a Municipal Police Service. An external accounting firm (MNP) was hired to describe what a municipal force would look like and create a very detailed financial model of its costs. This work was done alongside extensive engagement with Grande Prairie residents and organisations and through conversations with municipal forces across Canada. It led to a Transition Report being created.

On March 6th, Council will be meeting to debate this Transition Report. At that time, Council may decide to initiate the formation of a Municipal Police Service (MPS). Keep on reading to get more information and my take.

Important Facts

As I have talked to residents about policing, I’ve noticed a number of misconceptions floating around. Some things everyone should know as they form an opinion:

The City of Grande Prairie already pays for most policing costs. The RCMP contract represents about 20% of your property tax bill. When it comes to policing expenses, the City is required to pay 90% of most costs (ex: RCMP officer and police car costs). The City pays 100% of some other costs (ex: civilian support staff and the Detachment Building). These costs go up every year and have proven to be very unpredictable.
An external accounting firm (MNP) was hired to do a financial model for a municipal force. This model was detailed down to the price of tie clips and was formed through a close examination of policing costs in Grande Prairie and in other communities with municipal services. It showed that the ongoing operations of a Municipal Police Service would likely be less than maintaining our RCMP contract. There is a longer section on this below.
Council has done extensive work examining a potential municipal police force. This work started over two years ago. Throughout that work, we had more residents take part in public engagement specific to a potential transition than took part in any engagement in the City history. Over the past year, residents have also had other formal opportunities to offer their views on policing including through 5 RCMP town halls, the Citizen Satisfaction Survey, and budget engagements.
Looking into forming a municipal police force was initiated by our local City Council, not the province.
If we form a Municipal Police Force, it would be governed by a civilian Police Commission. This Commission would have a majority of public members (ie: non-politicians) and be Chaired by a public member.
80% of Canadians are policed by police forces other than the RCMP.
Due to high vacancies and low recruitment numbers, there is growing concern about the RCMP’s ability to police larger urban municipalities like Grande Prairie. There is significant risk that sometime in the future, RCMP policing will become unavailable to us.

About the RCMP

Local Members

Our local RCMP members are awesome!

I have not had anything but good interactions with those currently stationed in Grande Prairie and in provincial leadership roles. The people providing our policing are dedicated and professional. Whether they plan to be here for a few years or the rest of their career, they are doing important work for Grande Prairie. I am thankful for them.

For me, the hardest part of this conversation relates to the RCMP members I have been able to personally interact with. I really like them and the work they are doing. Losing a number of these individuals from our community is one of the biggest downsides of a potential transition.

If we do form a Municipal Police Service, that has nothing to do with concerns about the individuals currently serving our community.

RCMP Costs & Budgetting

RCMP costs are a very large and unpredictable part of the City’s budget.

In 2023, the City’s budgeted cost for RCMP is $23,730,000. About 20% of our property taxes goes directly towards RCMP policing. Additional money is spent on Bylaw Enforcement, Mobile Outreach, and corporate services supporting policing.

The City of Grande Prairie is responsible to cover 90% of most of the costs of RCMP policing. For example, the City pays 90% of the cost of staff salaries and equipment procurement. The federal government covers the other 10%. This federal coverage is not meant to be a subsidy to municipal services. It exists because local RCMP members are at times called upon to provide police services that are within federal or provincial (not municipal) jurisdiction.

There are some costs that the City pays 100% of. For example, the City pays 100% of the cost to maintain 58 Civilian Support staff and for the building the RCMP works out of.

The only control the City has over the RCMP budget is saying how many RCMP members we would like to have. Each year, we get told what the payment for this number of members will be.

Per-member costs are consistent across the province. They include not just salaries but also training, equipment, and corporate services. This means that the City, where it is relatively cost effective to service a large urban detachment, helps finance less cost efficient detachments in rural areas.

These costs have been rising dramatically. In my time on Council, they have gone up by about 25%. As Council works to control taxes and enhance other services, ballooning RCMP costs have put a huge strain on our budget.

To be fair: a large amount of that increase was due to RCMP members winning the right to Collective Bargain then negotiating a significant pay raise. Before that, they were paid less than most other police services. RCMP members certainly deserved to make more than they were previously making.

However, when planning for Collective Bargaining, the federal government told municipalities to budget for a 16% increase to RCMP salaries. Instead, municipalities saw a 24% increase. Municipalities had no seat at the bargaining table and no warning. Another round of Collective Bargaining is coming up where municipalities have no say or awareness about potential increases. We’ve also been told that we will have to make a one time retro payment for salary increases. This payment could be as high as $4,300,000 but we don’t know how large it will be or when it will be expected. Over the past few years, we have also seen increases in the costs of equipment and corporate services.

The RCMP contract is the City’s single biggest expense. The uncertainty and lack of local input into it is the biggest annual risk to the City’s operating budget.

Upsides of RCMP Policing

Historically, the RCMP has been a very good thing for the City of Grande Prairie. It has been the right approach to policing in the past.

And there are upsides to maintaining the RCMP going forward. These include:

Turnkey Service: The RCMP handles all aspects of recruiting, training, supervising, paying and caring for its members. It creates and enforces its own policies and procedures, maintains its own IT infrastructure, and procures its own equipment. For these services, the City just needs to provide some input and pay the bill. This does save work for Council, the City and the Community.
Liability and Major Events: If local RCMP is sued, the RCMP handles that. The City doesn’t need to carry its own insurance or expose itself to much liability risk for policing. Additionally, if a major event requiring increased police resources occurs in our community, the City is less likely to be responsible for the costs if it has an RCMP contract.
Regional Command: There are different people policing the City and the County. However, they all report to a single Detachment Commander. There are benefits to having integrated police command across the region.
Provincial and Federal Integration: While other municipal services report excellent working relationships with the RCMP, there are less barriers to RCMP detachments working with one another than to them working with other police services.
National Perspectives: The RCMP brings in police from across the country. There are advantages to having this type of diversity in our policing.

It is important that Council carefully consider these upsides to RCMP as it contemplates moving to a municipal service.

For a better look at the upsides and downsides of RCMP policing, I’d encourage you to checkout page 93 (section 7.4) of the Police Model Review.

Challenges of RCMP Policing

There are also some challenges to RCMP policing. These include:

Turnkey Service: While having a turnkey service saves work, it also limits input. The local Municipal Police Advisory Committee gets to set some priorities for our RCMP detachment. But it also needs to meet priorities set by the provincial and federal government. There is also no local input into policies the RCMP operates under and limited ability to create local accountability for results.
Historic Relations with Some Communities: This is a tough one for me to talk about because I highly respect our RCMP members. I do believe that our current police in Grande Prairie are welcoming and inclusive. And I have seen effort by local, provincial, and federal RCMP to pursue Truth and Reconciliation and build relations with all types of people. Our local Community Policing unit is especially doing very good work to build trust. But the RCMP has had some historically terrible interactions with certain communities. This has created real trauma for some residents of Grande Prairie, especially those who identify as Indigenous or 2SLGBTQ2+. There are people in our community who will likely never be able to trust calling the RCMP for help, no matter how great our local members are. There may be more potential for a Municipal Police Service to build trust with these individuals.
Cost Uncertainty: As detailed above, RCMP costs are proving to be unpredictable. Council creates multi-year budgets, but these are constantly challenged by not knowing what our biggest cost (i.e.: policing) will be.
High Staff Turnover, Junior Staff: While our local RCMP members are dedicated professionals, they often don’t have the policing experience or community connection we would like. The Police Model Review found that 50% of our front-line patrol members had less than one year in RCMP service, 27 of our 44 constables were new to the detachment within the past year, and 50% of supervisor positions were vacant and being filled by members in acting roles (pages 75-76).
Highly Bureaucratic: The RCMP is a very large and established institution. It is also works for all three levels of government under a huge amount of Acts, Regulations, Policies and contracts. This introduces a lot of bureaucracy that limits adaptation and flexibility. There have been many times where our community and local Detachment Commander could not get permission to make changes that would serve our community well.
Recruitment Challenges: The City of Grande Prairie has never received all the RCMP members it requests. Our detachment should have a police staff of 104. We have never had more than 98. This is because the RCMP is struggling to recruit members. And because of its national scope, there is nothing that the City can do to help recruit members to serve locally.

Risk to Long Term Availability

RCMP contract policing is established through contracts between the federal and provincial governments. These expire in 2032. There is significant risk that RCMP policing will be unavailable to us after that time.

The province is strongly pursuing an Alberta Provincial Police (APP) force. If the UCP win the next election, there is a good chance that they will move forward with it. If the province does form an APP, it would be unlikely that either the provincial or federal government would be interested in allowing the City of Grande Prairie to maintain an RCMP contract.

However, the bigger concerns about the long-term RCMP policing are more national in nature.

The RCMP will likely always police small and remote communities. But there are growing voices across the Country raising doubts about if the RCMP will be able to have the members necessary to police cities like Grande Prairie. RCMP numbers are already critically low, and they have been shrinking for years. Meanwhile, cities are growing and demanding more contract police. The number of contract police in cities is putting the RCMP’s ability to offer federal policing and to police rural areas at risk.

The RCMP might be able to solve its recruiting crises. But I haven’t yet heard of a viable path forward to do this. If the RCMP is unable to do so, it is very likely that they will be directed or forced to get out of contracts with cities that are big enough to form police services of their own.

Some sources:

Public Safety Canada Briefing Note: this 2019 federal document says that “the demand for contract officers outstrips the RCMP’s capacity to recruit and train… Federal policing responsibilities have been and are being eroded to meet contract demands.” This document also outlines that RCMP contracts are fulfilling provincial (not federal) responsibilities but are costing the federal government $750 million per year with unrecoverable costs growing.
House of Commons Committee Report: this report suggested that the RCMP may not have capacity to address local community concerns in the areas where it is contracted to serve. It recommended that the “Government of Canada explore the possibility of ending contract policing.”
Federal Mandate Letter: the Federal Minister of Public Safety was instructed to “conduct an assessment of contract policing.” While there are no further details in this letter, I have yet to hear a single person disagree with the assertion that this assessment is at least in part due to concerns the federal government has with the viability of contract policing.
National Police Federation Study: this study by the union representing RCMP members highlights significant labour force challenges. Less cadets are being recruited and a lower percentage of cadets are graduating from Depot than have in the past. The numbers of new officers entering the RCMP is lower than the number of experienced officers leaving.
Media Articles: There are many media articles about RCMP vacancy rates causing problems across the country. Here are examples from BC, Manitoba, and New Brunswick.
Academic Opinions: A growing number of researchers and academic experts are questioning the viability of RCMP contract policing. Others are suggesting that effort be made to help communities get out of RCMP contracts. Here’s an example from the Graduate School of Public Policy in Saskatchewan. Here’s one from a professor of law at the University of Toronto.

It is becoming increasing clear that the RCMP is struggling to sustainably fulfill all of its contracts. It is difficult to see a viable path forward for the RCMP to staff its current provincial and municipal policing commitments. In the future, there is significant risk that the federal government will no longer offer RCMP policing to communities of our size.

How This Conversation Has Happened

Since long before I got on Council, there have been conversations about if an RCMP contract is the best way to police our community. This is not unique to Grande Prairie. I’ve talked to Councillors from cities across Canada who are having the same conversation. There are longstanding and growing concerns about if an organisation that is very focused on federal and rural policing is the best model for serving increasingly complex cities.

For me personally: this conversation about a transition was always interesting. But, it became urgent in 2020. Some reasons for that:

We knew that we were about to see large increases to the cost of maintaining an RCMP contract due to RCMP Collective Bargaining. Historically, RCMP policing was much cheaper than a municipal service because RCMP members were underpaid. With impending raises coming, it was clear that this math was about to change.
I was learning more about current and historical changes to police services that were supported by both the community and the local Detachment Commander, but not permitted by the RCMP.
I became aware of the mounting concerns about low recruitment numbers and the long term viability of RCMP contracts.
Council was obsessed with fiscal responsibility. In all service areas we were asking “are we delivering these in a way that gets the best possible results for the money spent?” It made sense to also ask that of policing, which is our most expensive and one of our most important services.
The province was starting to pursue an Alberta Provincial Police (APP). This was a potential huge shift in our policing that would get forced on it. But to evaluate it, Council didn’t have great information about the current state of RCMP policing in Grande Prairie or what an APP would look like. And if the province moved forward with an APP and the City wanted to opt out, Council had no idea what a municipal force would look like.

For these reasons, I was glad to see Council fund a Police Model Review during Budget Deliberations in November, 2020.

For the next year and a half, existing staff worked with a hired consultant who has extensive policing experience. They took a deep dive into the current state of RCMP policing in Grande Prairie, read extensive literature about policing, and visited municipal detachments across Alberta and Canada. Based on this, a Police Model Review Report was presented to Council last September. You can click here to watch the Council meeting where it was debated.

Throughout that time, several engagements with the community were created that included gauging public experience and expectations with policing. Examples in 2022 included the Citizen Satisfaction Survey, engagements surrounding budget deliberations, and a series of RCMP townhalls.

Based on this information, Council viewed potential benefit in transitioning to a Municipal Police Service. To get further information, Council directed the hiring of a third party accounting and business strategy company, MNP. The team from MNP has significant experience with police budgets across Canada. It did further evaluation of the current state of RCMP policing and of policing in other communities with municipal police services. It also conducted public engagement to check in on what the community was experiencing from current policing and what it expected out of policing in the future. This work was used to create a financial model for a Municipal Police Service. This model is detailed down to the cost of toques. It also has conservative choices built into it, including a 20% contingency for transition costs and no inclusion of photo radar revenue. A Transition Plan was presented to Council in late February. You can click here to watch Council’s first opportunity to ask questions.

About a Municipal Police Service (MPS)

Following is more information about what an MPS will look like if Council chooses to establish one.

I’d encourage you to also read the City’s Q&A about a possible Municipal Police Service. And if you really want to dive in, checkout the Transition Plan.

Basic Details

If we start a Municipal Police Service, some basic details about it:

It will be governed by a Civilian Police Commission, not Council.
It will take years to implement. It will phase up while RCMP presence phases down. It will take until 2027 to fully implement a municipal service.
We have very good reason to believe that its annual operating costs will be lower than staying with the RCMP.
It will fully integrate the Police with Peace Officers and the Mobile Outreach Program. These will still be separate units. But they will have integrated dispatch and information sharing while all reporting to the same Chief.
It will have 100 Sworn Officers: more than the RCMP provides us with today.
It would include specialized services such as an emergency response team, police dog, major crimes, and forensics. If events occur requiring further specialized services, the RCMP is obligated to provide them under its contract with the province (although there may be additional cost to the City).

Cost

The Transition Plan was created by MNP. Since MNP is a well regarded accounting firm with a reputation to uphold, I put a great deal of confidence in its due diligence with financial matters.

As part of the Transition Plan, MNP created a complete financial model of the operational, transitional and capital budgets required to transition to a Municipal Police Service (MPS). This modeling takes into account all aspects of a MPS including recruitment, training, equipment and IT costs. It is detailed down to the price of purchasing tie clips for officers. It was created by taking a deep dive into the financials of policing in Grande Prairie and in other municipal police forces across the country.

A number of conservative choices were made in generating this financial model. For example: it includes a 20% contingency for startup costs, does not include a buyout for equipment that the federal government is contractually obligated to pay, and does not include revenue from Automated Traffic Enforcement.

This model was then examined in detail by City executive staff. It is now being scrutinized very closely by Council.

I struggle to imagine additional work that could’ve been done to give Council an even more accurate projection of likely costs.

This work shows that the one-time transition costs for starting up an MPS will be up to $19.7 million. If we transition, the provincial government has committed to paying $10 million. This means the transition costs to the City will be up to $9.7 million. These costs include buying equipment, establishing IT infrastructure, recruitment costs, paying staff to work on the transition, and covering inefficiencies generated by having both an MPS and an RCMP detachment operating simultaneously for several years.

The financial modeling shows that on an ongoing basis, the cost of operating an MPS will be $31.5 million per year. These costs for an MPS would be $780,000 per year less than maintaining the RCMP contract. Depending on the next round of RCMP Collective Bargaining, those costs differences could be even larger.

Recruitment & Training

Recruitment is likely the largest risk to starting up an MPS. However, recruitment is already an ongoing challenge and a significant risk for our current police model. And with RCMP policing, there is little to nothing our community can do to influence recruiting. With an MPS, our community can shape its own recruitment approaches.

It is also worth noting that in visits to midsized MPS police departments across Canada, including ones serving northern communities, recruitment was not flagged as a major challenge.

One benefit of the MPS is that it will be attractive to recruits who would never consider joining the RCMP. To join the RCMP, recruits are required to go to Depot in Regina for 26 weeks. Then they can be shipped anywhere in the country. This is unattractive to people who wish to live in our region and unattainable to many people with families.

During the transition period, there is funding in the financial model for a dedicated recruiting team. This team will conduct provincial and national searches for recruits. However, there will also be an emphasis on recruiting from our region to serve our region.

The financial model also creates good financial incentives for police to serve in Grande Prairie. The salary scales are slightly higher than anywhere else in Alberta. There are recruitment incentives of up to $25,000 for experienced officers and budget to reimburse for moving costs. Pensions would be through the Special Forces Pension Plan, which means that it would be possible for experienced officers to continue building pensions they have started elsewhere.

Training would be conducted in Grande Prairie.

New cadets would go through a 25 week program. It would include all the basics that are taught at RCMP Depot. But unlike Depot, cadets would also receive training in Alberta Legislation and Grande Prairie Bylaws. This training would be delivered through a post-secondary institution that is already providing accredited police training in Alberta. It has agreed to send instructors to Grande Prairie.

Experienced officers with 3 years or more in another police service would go through a shortened training program. The MPS would also have Training Officers to conduct ongoing training for all police.

Governance, Oversight and Complaints

The provincial Police Act establishes strict rules for operating a Municipal Police Service.

The MPS would be governed by a civilian Police Commission. This body could have up to two members of Council but would be a majority of Public Members and would be Chaired by a Public Member. The Commission will be responsible to hire and supervise the Chief, establish Police Service policies, create business plans and priorities, report to the community, and set the policing budget.

Both the Commission and the officers serving within the MPS will need to meet strict requirements set out by the Alberta Policing Standards and Alberta Police Oversight Standards.

If there is a complaint about the conduct of an officer, it will not be investigated by a local authority. Complaints will go to the provincial Police Review Commission for investigation and potential discipline. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team will investigate cases of death, major injuries, or allegations of serious misconduct.

PRos and cons of an mps

Pros of an MPS

There are a number of potential benefits to establishing a Municipal Police Service. These include:

Recruitment. While the RCMP and other large services are struggling with recruitment, municipal services in midsized cities (including ones serving northern communities) are not reporting the same challenges. Under the current RCMP model, there is nothing our community can do to help with the major recruitment challenges. With an MPS, Grande Prairie would be able to recruit people already in our region and establish recruiting practices that work best for our community.
Better integration of Police Officers, Peace Officers and Mobile Outreach. Currently, RCMP has separate command, dispatch, and information sharing structures from Police Officers and Mobile Outreach. While there is a good working relationship between all three teams, their structural separation creates inefficiencies, sometimes leads to the wrong resource being dispatched to a call, and impedes coordinated service. Under an MPS, these teams would all be integrated into the same organisation. Additionally, Peace Officers would be able to respond to calls involving minor theft or mischief. This will allow Sworn Police Officers to spend more time on proactive policing and on responding to higher priority crimes.
More flexibility to respond to community needs. The RCMP is a large and often bureaucratic organisation. Historically, we’ve had good Detachment Commanders eager to improve local service. But their innovations often get shut down by their superiors outside of Grande Prairie. It has been difficult for many innovations to be brought to bear on policing in Grande Prairie.
Better interfacing with senior leadership of other police forces. A Municipal Police Service Chief would be able to join the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police. Our RCMP detachment commander does not sit at that table.
Local Dispatch: Police are currently dispatched by people in Edmonton who do not know our community. An MPS would be dispatched locally. This will decrease dispatch times and make it easier for residents in emergency situations to communicate with dispatchers. (For example, if someone says “I need help on the road behind the mall,” a dispatcher with local geographic knowledge is likely to pinpoint the location quicker than a dispatcher only working off of maps)
New policing resources in our region. Under the RCMP model, some resources are housed outside our community. For example: if a policing event requires an emergency response team (ie: SWAT), it needs to be brought in from Edmonton. This takes many hours. A Municipal force would have its own emergency response team. (However, under the province’s contract with the RCMP, the City would still have access to RCMP specialized resources if we required them. But there could be additional cost to those services.)
Local accountability and transparency. Under the RCMP, our Detachment Commander works for people that don’t live in Grande Prairie. All reporting needs to be approved by the RCMP, which often makes it difficult for the City and community to get requested information. Under a Municipal model, the Chief of Police would work for a local Police Commission. This Commission would have the authority necessary to get the information our community needs released to it. (Important note: any Complaints about Police Misconduct would NOT be handled locally but by a provincial panel. Which is a good thing!)
Focus on local priorities. Under the RCMP, the local community gets to set some priorities for the Detachment Commander. But these are set after provincial and federal priorities are set. Under an MPS, local priorities would be the primary focus.
Economic Benefit. Under the current RCMP model, the City funds corporate jobs that are outside of the region. It is estimated that bringing those jobs into Grande Prairie will capture about $3,000,000 of spending in our local community. Additionally, under a municipal service, training would happen in Grande Prairie instead of in Regina. This is even more spending and economic activity that would be captured in our community.
Potential cost savings. A municipal service would be unlikely to cost more than RCMP policing. In fact, it is likely to cost less. Click here for more info on cost.
Cost control. In previous years, we have seen ballooning RCMP costs. Officer salaries, corporate services, and equipment costs have all gone up. None of these escalations are fundamentally bad. But they have often been poorly predicted and communicated by the federal government. Our community gets no say in them. Under a Municipal Service, a local Commission would be responsible for the budget. This would mean the budget would be better communicated and that any cost changes would be tied to local community benefit.
Officer Retention. Turnover is a constant issue with local policing. A municipal force would be able to recruit people with established roots in the community: they would be more likely than RCMP members to stay long term. Additionally, the RCMP has a culture and established pathways of getting recruited in and out of communities and often uses Grande Prairie as a training community for brand new officers. A municipal force would be less likely to have police officers who are only planning to be in Grande Prairie for a few years and more likely to have experienced members in frontline roles.
Certainty in our policing model. There is a lot of uncertainty from both the provincial and federal government on whether or not we will be able to continue with RCMP policing in the future. This uncertainty takes energy and resources away from other community priorities. Establishing an MPS will insulate our community from these conversations happening in other levels of government.

Downsides & Risks of an MPS

There are also downsides to establishing a Municipal Police Service. These need to be carefully considered.

The biggest downside if we transition: losing current RCMP members.

Our RCMP members are great. And while most have short times of service in Grande Prairie, that certainly isn’t the case for all. We have RCMP members who have put down roots in Grande Prairie and who hope to be members of our community for a long time to come. If we establish a Municipal Police Service, those who want to keep Grande Prairie their home will be welcome to join. But we will lose some of them. Maybe most of them. For me, knowing how some individuals serving our community will be impacted is the hardest part of this conversation.

There are some additional downsides to establishing an MPS. To get an idea of them, scroll up to see where I listed the upsides of keeping RCMP policing.

As for risks:

The best way to mitigate risks is to plan well. Which has been done. Council and staff have done over two years of work learning about what it would take to operate a successful police service. And a third party (MNP) was hired to create a very detailed operational model and Transition Plan.

This Plan includes a register of all risks including mitigation strategies. You can find that on page 100.

The biggest risk I see with transitioning to a Municipal Police Service is recruitment. If we manage to recruit enough great people, we will have a great police service. If we struggle with recruitment, we will struggle with the MPS.

As I detailed above, municipal services in other midsized cities didn’t cite recruitment as a large challenge when they were visited. And there are good plans in place to do recruitment for Grande Prairie.

However, we don’t just need to recruit good police. To have a good MPS, we will also need to recruit high quality civilian Commissioners. An MPS will only be as good as the Commission. It will require high quality community members to step up and serve. So if we do form and MPS and if you are interested enough in policing to read this way-too-long webpage: please consider applying for the Commission!

The Big Risk of Not Transitioning

There are risks to transitioning to an MPS. But there is also risk to not transitioning.

As outlined above, the RCMP is not recruiting enough members to remain viable across all their current operations. It is difficult to see a path forward for the federal government to maintain current contract policing.

Personally: I think the RCMP will police small and remote communities for a long time to come. But it is very unlikely that it will continue in cities the size of Grande Prairie after contracts expire in 2032. By pulling out of cities that are large enough to have a viable municipal police force, the RCMP would be able to properly staff its federal contracts and contracts in smaller communities. A growing number of expert, political, academic, and pundit voices are saying this has to happen.

There are risks to establishing a Municipal Police Service. But if we don’t establish one on our own, change may be forced on us. All those risks increase dramatically in a forced transition.

If we transition to an MPS on our own, we control the timing. We can initiate the transition at a time when Council judges that the City and the community have adequate capacity. We can determine how long it will take. And we can speed up or slow down the transition as we go to adapt to changing circumstances.

If a transition is forced on us, it may come at a time where other community pressures make it difficult. And it will likely come on a timeline that has little to no flexibility to respond to circumstances in our community.

However, the biggest risk of a forced transition is competition with other communities.

There are a number of resources needed to make a transition to an MPS. These include experienced officers, new recruits, civilian support staff, consultant help, established trainers, time and attention from provincial and federal governments, transition work from RCMP leadership, and input from existing municipal forces. Right now, we don’t have to compete for the resources needed to transition to a Municipal Police Service. In fact, because they think more of these transitions are going to happen across Canada, many knowledgeable people are eager to help with the early ones.

If transition is forced on us, it will be forced on many other cities at the same time. That means that there will be fierce competition for the limited resources. Which will make transition riskier and more costly.

There is a good chance that cities of our size will be forced to transition away from RCMP policing in the future. If that happens, our community will be well served if it has already completed a transition.

should we start an MPS? My opinion

When we started this process two years ago, I didn’t want to see a Municipal Police Service. My two biggest intentions with supporting the police model review:

Better understand the current state of RCMP policing so it could be improved
Have some pre-work done to support a transition if it was forced on us by other levels of government

However, since then, Council has done a tremendous amount of work on policing. We’ve processed hundreds of pages of reports, taken part in community consultations, and sat in many meetings. I’ve also talked to many Councillors, Commissioners, and police officers from across Alberta and a decent amount from across Canada.

As I’ve done that work, I’ve come to the opinion that for a community of our size, a Municipal Police Service model does have advantages over an RCMP contract.

However, the RCMP is still offering a good service to our community. So is the cost, risk, and effort of transition to an MPS worthwhile?

I think it likely is for one major reason: recruitment.

The RCMP is struggling with recruitment. They are understaffed right now. And on an annual basis, they are losing more members than they are gaining. This is creating issues across the country and in our own community. Our Detachment has never been at full strength and I doubt it ever will. Low numbers hamper police effectiveness right now and could become a crises in the future.

I don’t think our community is well served by Council sitting back and hoping the federal government eventually solves the recruiting problem. I see huge merit in us forming a Police Service to address recruitment head on.

I also think that there is a VERY good chance that, in the not too distant future, the federal government stops allowing the RCMP to police cities of our size. If that happens, many municipal forces will be starting up at the same time. Grande Prairie will not be well served by recruiting in an environment like that.

I see a lot of risk in remaining with the RCMP. For that reason, I am leaning towards voting “yes” for transition.

That being said, I am still very much wrestling with how I will vote. Because I have four big “buts" to my thinking:

Tax Impact: When Council last debated a transition, we didn’t know if or how much support the province would provide for transition. We now know that the City might need to figure out up to $9.7 million in funding to make a transition. Residents who have talked to me are about 50/50 on if they support or oppose a transition. But the residents who support a transition usually say “but not if it will cost us more!” And cost is the biggest concern flagged by those opposed. Which is fair enough. I need to learn more about how this $9.7 million could be funded from existing budgets. I’m unlikely to support a transition if it will have a large tax impact.
Further Questions: So far, Council has only had one opportunity to ask questions about the Transition Plan. I was encouraged by what I heard with no red flags going up. But upon further reflection, I have more questions I need to ask to be sure I understand the Transition Plan and have done my due diligence to decide how accurate a picture it provides.
New Information: I always go into meetings with residents and Council meetings with an open mind. And since I am leaning towards voting “yes,” I have been working hard to talk to people urging me to vote “no.” I don’t find someone merely stating their opinion without research and backing information very persuasive. But I’m VERY interested to learn or think about things I haven’t considered. So if you have read this page and see something I might not have factored into my thinking: please contact me! I’d love to talk over email, the phone, or [better yet] coffee. You can reach me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166.
Timing: Over the past years, there have been many opportunities for residents to provide feedback on policing and public safety in general. These included the Citizen Satisfaction Survey, Budget engagements, and a series of townhalls hosted by the RCMP. And during engagements specific to a potential Transition, more residents participated than participated in any engagement in City history. A lot of work has been done to hear resident’s experiences, expectations and concerns with policing so that they can be carefully considered by Council. But I respect that residents are busy and there is a lot of information flying at them, so most missed this conversation over the past two years. It seems sudden and is not understood by many. There is a big part of me that would like to give more space and time for public conversation. But the feedback I’m hearing from residents is pretty consistent, so I also struggle to picture what new perspectives would be introduced if we delayed. As someone who both really values engagement but also believes Council’s role is to take action to improve the community (not just talk and work to be popular), I’m struggling with this.

But What about...

As I chat with residents about a potential Municipal Police Service, there are a number of “but what about…?” objections I am hearing. These are often very valid concerns but not based on full or accurate information. So some of my thoughts on specific feedback I’ve heard.

...The Cost

The biggest concern I hear from residents about a potential transition is fear about tax increases.

I will highlight that the RCMP represents a significant existing cost to the City. Its costs go up every year with no predictability. And there is no local input into those cost increases. So if cost control is the primary concern with policing: the RCMP model doesn’t provide that.

As detailed above, extensive work has been done to assess the financial needs of a Municipal Police Service. I don’t know what additional work could of been done to get better costing. That work shows that an MPS is likely to cost less to operate than an RCMP contract. I don’t see good reason to think that an MPS will cost significantly more than the RCMP. And under an MPS, all costs are controlled by a local Commission. This means that they all have grounding in local needs and economy.

...Surrey

Surrey is the largest RCMP Detachment in Canada. In 2018, Surrey Council voted to move away from the RCMP by establishing a Municipal Police Service. While there have been a number of successes with this transition, there has also been a lot of bumps along the way. Costs were underestimated and transition is taking longer than anticipated. Now attempts are being made to reverse it.

In Grande Prairie, we are VERY aware of what is happening in Surrey. Our staff have visited Surrey twice in the last year and have had many other conversations involving the Surrey transition. Personally, I have followed the news from Surrey closely and talked to Councillors both from Surrey and from surrounding municipalities.

I think Surrey is more an example of “how not to transition” than of “don’t transition.” Our approach in Grande Prairie is very different than Surrey’s approach. And lessons learned from Surrey have been built into the Transition Plan.

The Surrey transition started with a political decision. A slate of candidates ran with forming a Municipal Service in their platform. At their very first meeting after the election, they voted to initiate a transition. At that time, no transition team or plan were in place: they were created after the decision to transition was made. Because it had to be made hastily and on the fly, the transition plan underestimated many costs. And since then, the transition has remained very political. Due to no pre-planning and later indecisiveness from Council, there hasn’t been an orderly standing down of the RCMP Detachment. In fact, there is still no date for a final transition determined. This has made the process VERY costly as Surrey is having to pay for its RCMP contract while also funding a Municipal Police Service.

This is NOT the approach being taken in Grande Prairie. No political decision has been made yet. Instead, over two years has been spent in studying other police services and assessing resources available in Grande Prairie. A detailed Transition Planning with a robust (and conservative) financial model has been created. Now that the political decision on whether or not to proceed with a transition is coming up, Council has a very good idea of what a transition might look like. And if a transition is initiated, it will be orderly because it is planned. With detailed task lists and firm dates in hand, the RCMP Detachment can be phased down in an orderly manner so that there is minimal time where we are paying for two police forces.

Because of its size, transition in Surrey is also orders of magnitude more complicated than transition in Grande Prairie.

...Red Deer and Airdrie

In recent years, Red Deer and Airdrie have also commissioned studies to look at forming Municipal Police Services. And they aren’t alone. RCMP policed cities across the country have been assessing moving to a Municipal Police Service (MPS). These reports consistently conclude that there are large potential benefits to moving away from RCMP contract policing. But they also find that there is a greater cost to being policed by an MPS.

So what’s different about Grande Prairie? Why does our study show a municipal force would be cheaper?

We do have some cost advantages that may not be present in other communities. We already own enough office space, dispatch equipment, and other resources that other municipalities standing up a force might need to procure. In our region, we have all the facilities necessary to offer training: we don’t need to build anything or send cadets out of town. And compared to other municipalities, we have a high amount of civilian support staff already working with our police.

However, the biggest difference between our study and those in Red Deer, Airdrie and elsewhere: their studies were done before RCMP Collective Bargaining. And RCMP members won a much higher raise than municipalities were expecting. Our study was done after Colletive Bargaining and so was able to take the actual salary increase into account.

Because they have reached out to me, I know there are Mayors and Councillors in other cities that have read our Transition Plan and are contemplating commissioning one of their own. Whether they are forced by other levels of government or not, I personally think there are going to be a number of cities transitioning to Municipal Policing over the next few years. If Grande Prairie decides to transition, moving quickly will be of advantage: it will save us from competing for the resources necessary to transition successfully.

...This NPF Press Release

The National Police Federation (NPF) is the union which represents RCMP members across the country. It put out this press release critical of the Transition Plan.

It is fair enough for the NPF to oppose a transition to a Municipal Police Service. Their job is to serve the best interests of their members. Fair enough that they don’t see RCMP members’ interests aligned with a police transition. And they even raise some valid points.

For example: I 100% agree that RCMP members continue to be asked “to do more with less” and there should be investments made to bolster RCMP work in Alberta. That’s completely true!

But I also do need to highlight a glaring inaccuracy in this release. It says “this report is not a feasibility study and does not investigate nor account for the full cost of such a transition. Some examples of cost concerns that were not considered include IT, officer training, equipment and resources, and recruitment.”

That’s just simply not true. The report is the result of years of work and the compilation of a detailed model to transition to and operate a municipal police force. Behind the report is detailed costing created by MNP. The following most certainly were considered: IT (pg 67 & 97), officer training (pg 78), equipment (pg 94 & 98), resources (pg 63 & 64) and recruitment (pg 76).

...A Referendum

Some residents are suggesting this decision should go to a referendum.

I’m a big believer in public engagement. I always advocate for the City to do more engagement. And personally, I write this website, dive into social media conversations, go to community events, knock on doors, and host coffee meetings to hear from residents.

I do this because residents are THE experts on what they are experiencing in the community and what they want to experience in the community. Residents need to have a very strong voice when it comes to shaping what City services should look like. They are the authority when it comes to setting what service outcomes should be pursued.

And some residents take the time to really dive into local government to understand how Council is working towards community priorities. I love chatting with these people! They often bring up perspectives and questions that hadn’t occurred to me. I learn a tonne from them.

But the vast majority of residents don’t want to wade into the details. When it comes to policing, they don’t want to analyze financial models, research recruiting trends, and learn about the details of how contract and municipal policing work. That’s why they elect a Council. To do the hard work of figuring out how best to pursue the priorities set by the community.

Personally, I have heard that residents want policing to be cost effective, adapted to local needs, transparent, visible, not overly bureaucratic, responsive to social factors, integrated into the community, and serving the needs of all people in our community.

These desires from residents weren’t just heard from the engagement done during the Transition Plan creation. We also ask for feedback on policing and safety through our Budget process, Citizen Satisfaction Surveys, and other formal engagement activities. Last year, residents could share their thoughts at a series of RCMP townhalls. And policing is a frequent topic of conversation when I meet for coffees, knock on doors, and attend community events.

It is Council’s job to take the expectations we have heard from residents and figure out how to best deliver them. We have been working towards that for over two years by reading hundreds of pages of reports, sitting in dozens of hours of meetings, and visiting other communities to learn about different policing models.

This is a big and important conversation. If you have read all this information: thank you! I appreciate you getting informed. And if you are this interested in policing: please consider applying for the Police Commission if we form an MPS, or for the Municipal Police Advisory Committee if we continue with RCMP policing.

Right now, my work focus is talking to residents about this. So if you want to chat: I’m all ears. We can talk through email or the phone. Or better yet: setup a time to meet for coffee. My number is 780-402-4166 and my email is dbressey@cityofgp.com.

Thanks for reading!

-Dylan