Learn more about policing, surveillance agencies and the systems that keep our province and Albertans safe. The Municipal Police Service Agreement (MPSA) is derived from a standard agreement between the federal government and a municipality used across Canada, where the RCMP provides local policing in a municipality. The agreement provides that this independent agency, created under the Police Act, investigates police incidents and complaints involving serious injuries, deaths and other serious matters. “Even if you spend a little more at the end, the hope would be that if you have provincial jurisdiction and you are directly accountable to the local provincial police authorities, you will get a police service that is tailored to the preferences, needs and standards of your territory,” he said. Police commissions may appoint police chiefs; Police committees can assist in the selection of appropriate officials. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a Canadian police service and an authority of the Attorney General of Canada. The RCMP is unique in the world because it is a national, federal, provincial and municipal police force. “We will invite the panel to examine the feasibility of creating a provincial police force in Alberta by ending the Alberta Police Service Agreement with the Government of Canada,” Kenney said in his speech. In 2011, The Alberta Complaints and Disciplinary Procedures Act was strengthened so that, in all appropriate situations, alternative dispute resolution procedures must be provided at an early stage of the police complaint process. To learn more about supervision in your municipality, contact the Alberta Police Governance Association or your City Council.

Police work in Alberta is community-based. Police services, oversight bodies, the Government of Alberta and a number of independent authorities and organizations, civil groups and local institutions work in partnership in our province: community oversight of police work is provided at different levels and in different forms, depending on the type of service and population: “They will be higher, in part because provincial and municipal police and non-RCMP services are higher.” He said. “[Here in British Columbia], if we changed, it wouldn`t be very complicated to do, and we have the resources and infrastructure in place, but I don`t know anything about Alberta.” The Police Act, the Police Code and provincial standards define roles and responsibilities – and how police services, control agencies and associated police partners and systems work. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is available through the Police Sservice Professional Standards Branch to handle citizen complaints involving the police. The EPS website page provides information on the process and benefits of the service. These positions do not cover the day-to-day operations of the police – it is the responsibility of the responsible police chiefs or the OFFICERS of the RCMP. But how would the province`s police agency go beyond a greater strategy of transferring powers from federal to provincial assignment if this step were to take place? “For more than 20 years, the RCMP has been the subject of intense debate as to whether they can continue to focus on federal police issues, in addition to contractual and sometimes municipal police issues,” Kempa said. “An agency may not be able to perform all of these policing functions properly.” Like much of what was announced on Saturday, the creation of a provincial police force is part of a broader strategy to give Alberta more autonomy from Ottawa.