I have questions concerning the article in the St. Albert Gazette dated March 23 "Council to Look at Costs to Study Municipal Police Force" in St Albert.
I have researched the populations of Grande Prairie, Red Deer and St. Albert for the year 2022 and Grande Prairie has 77,669 residents, Red Deer has 105,883 residents and there are 70,422 residents of St. Albert.
Red Deer commissioned a report conducted by KPMG in the amount of approximately $200,000 to consider the pros and cons of various policing models and identified opportunities for improvements to their current services provided by the RCMP.
This report can be googled under City of Red Deer Policing Review. I feel this would be of value to be read by the mayor and councillors. Red Deer decided NOT to go with a Municipal Police Force and their population is significantly higher than ours.
St. Albert has spent money on the solar farm study which did not go through. Now we are awaiting as to how much St. Albert's share is in the cancellation/pullout of the Regional Transit Commission/ Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services (EMTSC). Last word was the pullout of the EMTSC would cost 1.45 million dollars. So what is St. Albert taxpayers share of this?
Now a study is being suggested concerning a municipal police force in St. Albert, what would this cost the taxpayers? As Mr. MacKay said in the article, $30,000 would not be enough for the study.
I feel that the RCMP in St. Albert are working with the citizens of St. Albert and doing a great job. Not only that members are posted/moved every so often which brings in new ideas to policing our city.
The residents of St. Albert do not want to see our taxes going up significantly again. Many people are already having a difficult time with the rising costs of housing, groceries, fuel for vehicles and heating.
Lynn Miller, St. Albert
