Ashley Joannou
Only nine per cent of Albertans believe the province needs to replace the RCMP with a provincial police force, suggests a survey commissioned by the RCMP’s union.
Only nine per cent of Albertans believe the province needs to replace the RCMP with a provincial police force, suggests a survey commissioned by the RCMP’s union.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal The RCMP logo at K Division headquarters in Edmonton.
The online survey of 1,221 Albertans conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov. 4 by Pollara Strategic Insights found that 43 per cent of respondents thought the RCMP should “stay the course” and another 41 per cent said they have concerns about the Mounties but would support them “with improvements.”
“Albertans couldn’t be less interested in this proposal, despite repeated attempts by Premier (Jason) Kenney and others to make a case for a smaller, prohibitively costly and untested provincial police service,” Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation union, said in a statement.
The survey was conducted the same week the Alberta government released a report looking into the idea of a provincial force which found that the change would cost the province hundreds of millions of dollars in start up costs and lost federal funding but could provide better service and increase the number of frontline officers and civilian specialists.
Kenney refused to answer questions about the survey at an unrelated event Thursday. He has repeatedly said that a provincial police force was worth considering because it would encourage more officers from within the communities where they work and more First Nations’ representation.
“I think it is worth taking the time to study the potential benefits, structure and cost of an Alberta provincial police force because of the huge potential of having a strong community police model in this province,” he told the Alberta Municipalities convention last week.
In a statement, Alex Puddifant, press secretary for Justice Minister Kaycee Madu, said the results should be viewed critically considering the source is the RCMP’s union and some of the people were asked before the government’s report came out.
About half of the total respondents came from Edmonton and Calgary — places that are not policed by the RCMP — and the results don’t reflect concerns from municipalities over the millions of dollars in back pay they are being expected to cover under a new collective agreement with the RCMP, he said.
Approximately 80 per cent of those surveyed in communities served by the RCMP said they were either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with the RCMP’s policing, according to the results. Fifteen per cent said they were not very satisfied or not satisfied at all.
In an interview Thursday, Kevin Halwa, a regional director for the union, said there is always room for improvement but municipal leaders the union has spoken with support the Mounties and want more resources on the ground, which is something the province controls.
He said the survey was conducted by a professional company and even though places like Edmonton and Calgary are not policed by the RCMP those citizens are taxpayers in the province.
“It’s pretty clear that the provincial police service is going to cost a lot more and for that a lot more people are going to get a lot less service which should be concerning,” he said.
In a statement, NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley said she is not surprised Albertans rejected the idea.
“The Alberta NDP believes that if the government is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, it should be for more boots on the ground, more prosecutors in the courtroom, and more support for the social service agencies and non-profits on the frontlines of addressing the root causes of crime: poverty, homelessness and addiction,” she said.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error would be plus or minus 2.7 per cent.
ajoannou@postmedia.com
twitter.com/ashleyjoannou
The online survey of 1,221 Albertans conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov. 4 by Pollara Strategic Insights found that 43 per cent of respondents thought the RCMP should “stay the course” and another 41 per cent said they have concerns about the Mounties but would support them “with improvements.”
“Albertans couldn’t be less interested in this proposal, despite repeated attempts by Premier (Jason) Kenney and others to make a case for a smaller, prohibitively costly and untested provincial police service,” Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation union, said in a statement.
The survey was conducted the same week the Alberta government released a report looking into the idea of a provincial force which found that the change would cost the province hundreds of millions of dollars in start up costs and lost federal funding but could provide better service and increase the number of frontline officers and civilian specialists.
Kenney refused to answer questions about the survey at an unrelated event Thursday. He has repeatedly said that a provincial police force was worth considering because it would encourage more officers from within the communities where they work and more First Nations’ representation.
“I think it is worth taking the time to study the potential benefits, structure and cost of an Alberta provincial police force because of the huge potential of having a strong community police model in this province,” he told the Alberta Municipalities convention last week.
In a statement, Alex Puddifant, press secretary for Justice Minister Kaycee Madu, said the results should be viewed critically considering the source is the RCMP’s union and some of the people were asked before the government’s report came out.
About half of the total respondents came from Edmonton and Calgary — places that are not policed by the RCMP — and the results don’t reflect concerns from municipalities over the millions of dollars in back pay they are being expected to cover under a new collective agreement with the RCMP, he said.
Approximately 80 per cent of those surveyed in communities served by the RCMP said they were either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with the RCMP’s policing, according to the results. Fifteen per cent said they were not very satisfied or not satisfied at all.
In an interview Thursday, Kevin Halwa, a regional director for the union, said there is always room for improvement but municipal leaders the union has spoken with support the Mounties and want more resources on the ground, which is something the province controls.
He said the survey was conducted by a professional company and even though places like Edmonton and Calgary are not policed by the RCMP those citizens are taxpayers in the province.
“It’s pretty clear that the provincial police service is going to cost a lot more and for that a lot more people are going to get a lot less service which should be concerning,” he said.
In a statement, NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley said she is not surprised Albertans rejected the idea.
“The Alberta NDP believes that if the government is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, it should be for more boots on the ground, more prosecutors in the courtroom, and more support for the social service agencies and non-profits on the frontlines of addressing the root causes of crime: poverty, homelessness and addiction,” she said.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error would be plus or minus 2.7 per cent.
ajoannou@postmedia.com
twitter.com/ashleyjoannou
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