Alberta government introduces legislation to pave way for hiring officers to new provincial police force

The Alberta government is taking further steps toward hiring officers for a new provincial police force.

Bill 4, tabled Thursday, sets up the future Alberta Sheriffs Police Service (ASPS) to be treated like existing municipal police forces when it comes to labour relations and workers’ compensation coverage.

The legislation, if passed, would make it so that permanent residents can become ASPS officers, which the government says will broaden the recruitment pool and ensure consistency with practices from other police agencies.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis officially named the ASPS in July, after years of government musing about the possibility of creating a provincial police service as an alternative to the RCMP. Former Calgary Police Service deputy chief Sat Parhar was named the first ASPS chief this summer.

Ellis said Thursday the move is about “augmenting and supporting” the RCMP and existing city police.

“Over 600 [sheriffs] have been identified as doing police-like functions,” he said.“This is another reason why we are moving toward this independent police service.”

NDP MLA David Shepherd said he questions why the United Conservative government keeps moving ahead with this policing model, when many communities across the province have said they don’t want it.

“We are still hearing from municipalities across this province … who are still asking exactly the same questions they were asking 18 months ago: What’s this going to cost? How is this going to operate? How are we going to set this up between us?”

Ellis said there will be more legislation coming geared toward establishing the ASPS, and there isn’t a firm timeline yet for when officers will begin working.

But he said the gap between sheriffs already doing “police-like” work and trained police officers isn’t as significant as some may think.

“I don’t want to put a number on it, but I would say somewhere in the realm of six to eight weeks of additional training,” he said.

“What we’re doing is trying to co-ordinate so when this full transition does take place, the new police organization will have the ability to get those folks trained up to the capacity of a fully trained police officer.”

Alberta sheriffs are currently represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). The new legislation would mean sheriffs who are police officers with the ASPS fall under a police association instead if they choose to bargain collectively. Sheriffs doing other jobs as peace officers would still be with AUPE.

Existing legislation says police must be represented by a police association as a labour relations framework.