MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Mountain View County will be seeking clarification from the provincial government regarding the possibility of creating a regional RCMP policing model with area municipal partners, including Didsbury, Carstairs, Cremona and Crossfield.
Council received the MNP LLP Regional RCMP Policing Model Study report during the July 9 council meeting.
The county will be seeking responses to two questions:
• Will the province enable provincial police service agreement (PPSA) municipalities participating in regional policing initiatives to allocate their police funding model (PFM) contributions toward a regional RCMP deployment model?
• Will the province contemplate police governance model changes that allow PPSA and MPSA municipalities to join, as equal members, a local governance board that is formed in support of regional RCMP deployment models?
The Town of Carstairs has taken the lead in looking into the possible creation of a regional RCMP policing model with the Town of Didsbury, Town of Crossfield, Village of Cremona and Mountain View County. The other municipalities have joined in the effort.
The MNP report was prepared to examine the possibility of creating the regional model, which would consolidate the region’s resources into a single command structure and create a sustainable delivery model.
“This exploration of regionalization is prompted by the proximity of the municipalities and population growth, in the region specifically in the Town of Carstairs, resulting in the expectation that Carstairs will be required to enter a Municipal Police Service Agreement (MPSA) soon,” the report states.
“The current policing infrastructure in Didsbury that is serving four of the five partners is at capacity and has no space to accommodate growth in resources.
“Additionally, the response time to occurrence in the Town of Carstairs is below the Alberta Municipal Detachment average. Both the slower response times and growth rate indicate the need to proactively build infrastructure that can service a growing population with growing needs.”
The municipalities have been in talks about the possible regionalization for several months.
“Stakeholder engagement indicated support for regionalization if it will address service delivery challenges identified, including the need for more community engagement and communication, and a desire for more specialized units such as school resource officers, crime reduction and others, which potentially could be justified with a larger-served population.
“Pooling a larger group of resources also protects service levels from the impact of vacancies and leaves which the RCMP is currently challenged with.”
Municipalities, including Mountain View County, that are currently policed under a provincial police service agreement (PPSA) do not have the ability to form a police governance body and face restrictions in joining a local governance body established by a municipal police service agreement municipality such Didsbury and soon Carstairs, the county's chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes said in a briefing note to council.
“All PPSA communities currently fall under the purview of the provincial police advisory board, which will create challenge for equitable participation in police governance if a regional development model is pursued,” he said.
A second challenge requiring input from the provincial government involved funding for a regional deployment model, he said.
“As the province is in the process of reviewing the police funding model, Mountain View County will need to seek clarity on how participation in a regional deployment model may affect our contributions, and whether future iterations of the police funding model will allow local direction or allocation of a portion of those payments to support a regional deployment model.”
A regional deployment model would require the establishment of governance frameworks and operational structures, development of formalized agreements and standardized operating procedures, and a cost sharing agreement between the partners, the report states.
Councils of the other municipalities involved in the discussions vis-a-vis a regional policing model are also expected to receive the MNP LLP Regional RCMP Model Study report.
