St. Albert councillor and retired police officer Ken MacKay has submitted a motion to have city administration conduct a business case to review policing services in St. Albert.
MacKay said it is an important time for the city to be considering its future options when it comes to policing models. The RCMP's existing contracts with Canada are set to expire in 2032. MacKay said with the province developing the Alberta Sheriffs Police Force, he wants the city to be prepared no matter what happens in contract negotiations with the RCMP.
"The motion is about making sure St. Albert is ready for any future model, whatever that might look like," MacKay said. "It's about being proactive, not reactive, and keeping our options open."
The business case would define scope, resource needs and a funding source for consideration as part of Budget 2026.
He said he looked into the Community Policing Grant, which provides Indigenous and municipal communities up to $30,000 to develop a business case for their own standalone police service or a regional equivalent, but that wasn't enough to conduct a proper review.
He emphasized no decision has been made and the city would much prefer to stick with its current policing model under the RCMP. He said he would have liked to have it done this term, given that with the upcoming election there will be at least three new members on city council.
"Hopefully if I'm back on council, this will be one of the initiatives that I'll be advocating for strongly in the 2026 budget, because I don't want our community not prepared and being forced into choosing one model or being rushed into a model of policing that's not best for us," he said.
Those other models could include shifting from the RCMP to the Alberta Sheriffs Police Force or for St. Albert to develop its own municipal police service entirely. MacKay said a potential benefit of St. Albert transitioning from the RCMP, like what happened in Grand Prairie and Surrey, B.C., is that the city would be able to choose their own leaders and have a larger say in their initiatives and internal processes, despite what would be a higher initial cost.
"I'm not leaning towards one thing or another. I believe that a proper business case will identify the next steps that we should be looking forward to or going towards," he said. "And even if it comes back and says 'more information is required,' then that's at least something that we didn't have today."
The motion will be added to the agenda for council's first meeting back on Sept. 2.
