Remarks made by Premier Danielle Smith during last week’s Alberta Municipalities Convention are “inaccurate,” according to the Alberta RCMP.
On Thursday (Sept. 26), Smith addressed reporters at the convention in Red Deer, stating that Alberta now has two police forces, those being the RCMP and Alberta Sheriffs.
When asked why the provincial government has been increasing the presence of Alberta’s sheriffs, Smith stated that it’s being done out of necessity.
“The reason we’re doing it is because the RCMP has not been able to fill the need that we have. We pay for 1,911 officers and they have four or five hundred vacancies. And we cannot allow for rural communities to be under-policed, so we have trained our sheriffs to a point where they have the same training as police.”
The Alberta RCMP released a statement the following day addressing Smith’s claims.
“Despite continuous communications with our provincial partners, the current strength of Alberta RCMP officers is regularly miscommunicated, as is our current vacancy rate in Provincial Policing,” the release partially reads.
They claim that contrary to Smith’s statement, there are currently 1,772 officer positions in their current contract, with 306 vacant positions, or 17.3 per cent.
Of those 306, says the RCMP, 124 are currently unfilled, with 182 not working for various reasons including illness and leave.
The release states that the RCMP is undertaking a significant recruitment campaign, with over 1,400 applications received so far, an increase of 77 per cent compared to the last five years and expected to grow.
Commanding Officer of the Alberta RCMP, Deputy Commissioner Rob Hill, was quoted in the release.
“The employees of the Alberta RCMP are fiercely proud of the policing services they provide to Alberta… We are here to serve and protect Albertans, and we will continue to do so with dedication and integrity.”