Alberta Just Built Its OWN Police — Independence Vote Is Next
Episode Stats
Words per minute
167.8219
Harmful content
Hate speech
1
sentences flagged
Summary
Bill 15, the Public Safety and Emergency Services Statute Amendment Act 2026, is the latest step in creating a new Provincial Police Service, the Alberta Sheriffs Service, or ASPS. It would allow for the transition of the Alberta Sheriff's Branch into the new service, and allow the sheriff peace officers and civilian staff to become ASPS employees without any disruption to public safety or day-to-day operations.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Bill 15, the Public Safety and Emergency Statutes Amendment Act 2026.
00:00:04.020
Alberta's legislature session kicked off Tuesday
00:00:07.060
with another step toward replacing the RCMP with sheriffs.
00:00:11.720
All 1,200 government employees will now be transferred
00:00:15.460
to the new Crown Corporation called Alberta Sheriff's Police Service.
00:00:21.060
Alberta RCMP is at the forefront of some of the biggest stories in policing and crime,
00:00:25.980
but the future of the RCMP in the province is in limbo.
00:00:28.720
The Alberta government is exploring the possibility of a provincial police force
00:00:38.500
Alberta is moving ahead with a plan to transition hundreds of sheriffs into police officers.
00:00:44.120
New legislation is the latest step in creating a provincial police service,
00:00:50.380
and we won't know the cost until Thursday's tough budget.
00:00:54.860
A provincial plan to get more officers on the streets
00:01:02.360
This bill creates a practical path for the eligible sheriffs
00:01:06.540
to pursue police officer roles within the ASPS.
00:01:09.840
The province says about 600 sheriffs could go through six weeks of training
00:01:14.300
to move from a peace officer to a police officer.
00:01:17.840
So those would be your scan teams, your highway patrol teams,
00:01:22.420
your surveillance teams, your fugitive apprehension teams.
00:01:25.300
The minister says the Alberta Sheriff's Police Service will work alongside municipal police
00:01:34.980
A final decision on whether to move away from the RCMP in Alberta will come in the future.
00:01:39.960
Albertans are tired of feeling like the deck seems to be stacked against them.
00:01:44.900
They don't want excuses, and they certainly don't want governments
00:01:49.480
that just react after the damage is already done.
00:01:53.240
They want us to stay ahead of the criminals, and they want results.
00:01:57.240
The commitments and promises are, quite frankly, simple.
00:02:00.660
This government will do whatever it takes to put boots on the ground
00:02:05.320
Today, we're taking another important step towards delivering on that promise.
00:02:10.200
This afternoon, I'm going to be tabling Bill 15.
00:02:12.440
This is the Public Safety Emergency Services Statute Amendment Act 2026,
00:02:16.720
legislation that supports the continued development
00:02:19.240
of the Alberta Sheriff's Police Service, or some call it the ASPS.
00:02:23.600
Last year, we formally established the Crown Corporation for the ASPS
00:02:27.700
to augment and support all police services in the province.
00:02:30.520
And from the beginning, our goal has been to strengthen public safety
00:02:34.040
and give municipalities more options to meet their policing needs.
00:02:36.800
Bill 15 is the next step in that evolution of the ASPS
00:02:41.100
and a foundational step in aligning people, expertise, and operations under the ASPS.
00:02:47.880
For decades, our sheriffs have been the part of the landscape of community safety,
00:02:54.120
doing everything from high-speed traffic enforcement to specialized surveillance.
00:02:58.580
They're highly skilled, they're dedicated, and quite frankly,
00:03:02.360
they've been doing the police-like functions, and this work for a long time.
00:03:07.560
It creates a very common-sense line-of-sight transition for the sheriff peace officers
00:03:13.120
to move into the police officer functions under the ASPS.
00:03:16.860
If the bill is passed, the legislation would allow for the formal transition
00:03:24.080
and it would also allow the sheriff peace officers and civilian staff
00:03:27.620
to become ASPS employees without any disruption to public safety or day-to-day operations.
00:03:34.920
This bill creates a practical path for the eligible sheriffs
00:03:38.920
to pursue police officer roles within the ASPS,
00:03:42.140
and this is a major milestone in building the new service.
00:03:45.920
Bill 15 gives sheriffs the opportunity to pursue training,
00:03:48.740
to become ASPS police officers subject to the required training,
00:03:54.940
and others would continue in their current peace officer roles,
00:03:59.020
ensuring full operational capacity is maintained throughout the transition.
00:04:02.860
This approach allows the ASPS to recruit and train new police officers
00:04:06.400
while maintaining uninterrupted public service,
00:04:12.260
and making better use of the experience that we all have.
00:04:18.740
money has been set aside for the Alberta Sheriff's,
00:04:20.760
which will be transferred into the Crown Corporation.
00:04:25.440
rather than asking hundreds of skilled sheriffs to reapply
00:04:32.180
this legislation will provide a stable and common-sense pathway
00:04:39.100
are already performing police-like duties every single day,
00:04:42.880
supporting communities right across the province,
00:04:47.280
and proven leadership that Albertans already rely on.
00:04:51.300
This legislation would allow the ASPS to benefit from the experience
00:04:55.040
immediately, without gaps or delays or disruption in public safety.
00:05:00.640
The sheriffs are going to continue to serve their communities,
00:05:04.920
and support public safety just as they do today.
00:05:07.900
And for those who want to advance their careers,
00:05:13.720
to becoming fully authorized ASPS police officers
00:05:22.920
Over time, this will mean faster response times
00:05:28.500
stronger coordination with police of jurisdiction,
00:05:31.200
and more strategic deployment of police resources.
00:05:43.920
it will also provide municipalities with more flexibility
00:05:46.260
and more choice in how to meet their local policing needs
00:05:56.240
to the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act.
00:05:59.180
Our specialized sheriff units are already out there right now,
00:06:04.860
targeting fugitives that are avoiding accountability,
00:06:23.140
It's about faster response times, better coordination,
00:06:25.280
and, of course, putting more police officers on the streets
00:06:28.140
to deter those who think that they can break the law with impunity.
00:06:31.240
The legislation of past reflects the advice and expertise
00:06:35.760
of law enforcement leaders and the Alberta sheriffs themselves
00:06:38.200
because unnecessary red tape provides stability for staff
00:06:44.600
It moves Alberta closer to a modern, coordinated,
00:06:51.340
And, of course, there is always more work that needs to get done.
00:06:55.380
The head of the ASPS is going to continue to build its leadership team.
00:06:59.020
It's going to develop training programs and recruit police officers.
00:07:02.480
But today's legislation represents a very meaningful and practical step
00:07:08.180
And with that, I will take questions. Thank you.
00:07:10.420
How many Alberta police service members will receive additional training
00:07:21.620
So we've identified of the roughly 1,200 or so Alberta sheriffs,
00:07:27.700
there are approximately 600 of them have been ones
00:07:30.080
that have been performing the police-like functions.
00:07:32.280
So those would be your scan teams, your highway patrol teams,
00:07:36.520
your surveillance teams, your fugitive apprehension teams,
00:07:42.720
So those folks are already doing what we would call police-like functions.
00:07:45.920
Now, there are, again, the team led by Chief Barhar are identifying those folks.
00:07:52.680
We do have people that, for example, are former EPS or CPS members,
00:07:59.540
Those people are already trained police officers.
00:08:01.840
There are obviously a couple small qualifications that would need to be made.
00:08:05.580
But that transition is relatively simple for them.
00:08:08.260
There are people that have been or are very highly trained
00:08:12.960
that have worked in the Alberta sheriffs that are, for example,
00:08:16.380
doing the highway patrol, which, for those of you who do not know,
00:08:18.780
is probably one of the most dangerous things that somebody could do as a police officer.
00:08:22.760
It's known as an unknown threat because you just don't know
00:08:25.980
what you're getting yourself into on every traffic stop, quite frankly.
00:08:28.920
And so those people are very highly skilled and highly trained.
00:08:31.800
What we have determined or what we're figuring out,
00:08:34.380
I'm trying to reduce this working with Chief Barhar,
00:08:36.940
but we figure that there's about a gap of about six weeks' worth of training
00:08:41.360
that those folks would need to do in order to meet the necessary qualifications
00:08:46.420
under the Police Act to become fully empowered police officers.
00:08:52.480
So the cost, we've been waiting to hear an overall cost for this transition.
00:08:56.600
If you've got to repaint all the decals on the vans,
00:08:59.580
if you've got to do six weeks of training with 600 members,
00:09:04.960
Well, look, we have a budget that's going to be coming out here in the next couple of days.
00:09:10.380
I can tell you, as I know you've attended almost all of these press conferences,
00:09:14.580
we have the Alberta Sheriff's Branch that has a budget,
00:09:19.660
that budget, which is what this bill is essentially doing right now.
00:09:24.280
It lifts the people, it lifts the money that is within the Alberta Sheriff's Branch,
00:09:30.860
and moves it into the Crown Corporation that we built during the last session.
00:09:35.380
Of course, you know, people that are going to be doing police officer jobs,
00:09:42.400
and this is no secret, I have said this to you and I've said this to others before,
00:09:47.880
I don't know why anyone would be opposed to that.
00:09:50.680
And those people who will become police officers will be paid at the same level as a police officer.
00:09:57.160
Sure, there's going to be an increased cost in that,
00:10:01.080
and we have factored that in to those increases,
00:10:05.440
but that is something that will be coming out in the upcoming budget.
00:10:09.660
So is Alberta fully committed to moving away from the RCMP now,
00:10:14.660
Well, we are fully committed right now to augmenting and supporting,
00:10:21.460
You would have seen this only a couple weeks ago in the city of Calgary,
00:10:24.740
where the Calgary Police Service had an operation
00:10:29.540
where they were dealing with social and civil disorder in downtown Calgary,
00:10:34.800
And the good news is that once we transitioned many of these folks
1.00
00:10:41.820
is that those police officers will be able to act
00:10:46.220
without having their hands held by the local police of jurisdiction,
00:10:52.180
So right now, you have police officers that have to work with the police officers,
00:11:06.140
Now, in regards to the other part of your question there,
00:11:13.440
what is the best option for the people of Alberta.
00:11:17.440
I know that the federal government has committed to some of the provinces
00:11:23.940
who have been very clear that they want to maintain the contract services of the RCMP.
00:11:29.500
However, what the federal government has not committed to
00:11:32.260
is what that funding model is going to look like.
00:11:35.580
and that's a very, very important question that has to be had.
00:11:37.900
The RCMP still face the challenges when it comes to authorized strength levels.
00:11:43.760
And this is not, again, something that is exclusive to the people of Alberta,
00:11:48.080
B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, all the way down east as well.
00:11:54.020
So this is not, this is as simple as just, again,
00:11:59.640
and hoping you're getting police officers here.
00:12:03.080
when we talk about augmenting and supporting police services,
00:12:05.520
is this is the fastest path to get at least 600 or so police officers
00:12:10.240
on the streets of Alberta trying to assist all police of jurisdiction