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Alberta’s public safety and emergency services minister says he needs to take action to address the lack of police coverage in some areas of rural Alberta.

Mike Ellis said Monday that vacancy rates within Alberta’s RCMP detachments are an ongoing concern for the provincial government.

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The Alberta RCMP officer vacancy rate stands at 21.6 per cent, said Ellis. The federal government has authorized 1,911 officers for Alberta, but there are only 1,498 officers in the province, a shortfall of 413.

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“Make no mistake, we are paying for these services that we are not receiving — that is over 400 vacant RCMP officer positions for boots that are not on the ground,” said Ellis during an online roundtable discussion with rural media Monday.

Of those vacant positions, 177 officers are on “some sort of leave,” costing Alberta taxpayers $16 million, said Ellis.

“We’re already paying $16 million for services that we’re not getting,” he said. “I need to get police officers on the street responding to calls for service.”

The Alberta government’s 2024 budget includes $377.8 million in RCMP funding, an increase of almost $21 million from the previous year, he said.

The RCMP are having recruitment issues across Canada, but have made attempts to address the needs of younger Canadians who might be interested in becoming police officers, said Ellis.

“But that’s something going to take some time,” he said. “There are certain areas in Alberta where there is not 24-hour coverage. That is something that is unacceptable, so I’m trying to, again, do things what I can do to think outside the box in order to meet those needs.”

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Ellis, a former Calgary police officer, said that no matter where someone lives in Alberta, that person should be able to expect a police officer will arrive in a timely manner.

“Unfortunately, that is not always the case, especially in rural Alberta,” he said.

Bill 11 looks to form ‘an independent agency police service’: Ellis

In March, Bill 11, the Public Safety Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, was tabled in the legislature. If passed, it would update legislation to form what the province calls “an independent agency police service,” with Alberta Sheriff peace officers trained to a level of a police officer so that they can “properly augment and support” both the RCMP and other policing services in the province, said Ellis.

“We have to get away from thinking that only one police service can deal with some of the issues we’re facing right now,” he said.

“The augmenting and supporting we’re doing with the sheriffs is so that when you are in rural Alberta and you call 911 and there is a sheriff that’s five minutes away and there’s an RCMP member that’s an hour and a half to two hours away, pretty sure you’re going to want the police officer that’s five minutes away attending to try to help you out.”

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Alberta Sheriffs are already performing policing duties, said Ellis, mentioning that some are ALERT members and others are on gang suppression teams.

Critics have said the move is an attempt to introduce an Alberta provincial police service to replace the RCMP.

Ellis has said that Public Safety Canada has signalled that the federal department might not want to continue with contract policing.

“It would be negligent on my part if I didn’t just prepare for any type of scenario,” said Ellis, who mentioned this “signal check” during a Friday announcement that the province was providing a $550,000 annual policing grant to the southern Alberta town of Coaldale, which has not received federal police funding despite having an RCMP contract.

“If that’s not a signal check, I don’t know what is,” said Ellis.

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