The Alberta government will be paying an annual grant to Coaldale RCMP to cover costs the Canadian government has refused to pay, the Western Standard has learned. Since signing a policing contract with the Canadian government in 2016, Coaldale has been the only municipality in Canada to pay 100% of its RCMP contract. As a result, Coaldale residents have been saddled with $4 million in extra costs, but the Alberta government will be putting an end to that. “Coaldale’s unfair treatment is the result of the federal government’s unwillingness to be flexible and consider the needs of small town Alberta,” said Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis in a Thursday press release. “Where the federal government is unwilling to act, Alberta’s government is stepping in to ensure the residents of Coaldale are safe and protected with stable and predictable police funding.” Ellis said the Alberta government is “committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure our communities are safe places to live, work and play.”By providing an annual grant of $550,000, the Alberta government said it will remove a significant financial burden from Coaldale residents and protect public safety by making up for the shortfall from Public Safety Canada. It added this funding to Coaldale RCMP is in response to the Canadian government’s refusal to provide it with the same 30% subsidy it extends to similarly-sized towns across the country that are policed by municipal affiliates. Alberta United Conservative Party MLA Grant Hunter (Taber-Warner) said Coaldale has been required to pay for the RCMP all by itself for too long. “They are the only community in our country that has been forced to do this,” said Hunter. “The federal government have been petitioned multiple times to rectify this issue, but have refused.”Hunter acknowledged this was a good day, because the Alberta government has stepped up and done what the Canadian government could have done by funding Coaldale’s policing needs. Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn said he was pleased with the RCMP detachment, especially under the direction of Staff Sgt. Mike Numan. “But that doesn’t change the fact that for nearly a decade, Coaldale’s been the only municipality in Canada under 15,000 that receives policing from the RCMP at 100% of the cost,” said Van Rijn.“To be sure, we’ve tried engaging the federal government on this issue, but ever since 2015, our engagement efforts have fallen on deaf ears.” That has not been the case with the Alberta government. With the help of Ellis and his team, Van Rijn said it has “been able to find a made-in-Alberta solution to an Ottawa-induced problem that will stand to benefit our community for years to come.”The Alberta government concluded by saying the amount of Coaldale’s grant will be adjusted in future years as the overall amount of its municipal policing agreement changes. Although the immediate aim of this grant is to alleviate the financial hardship on it created by the missing federal subsidy, it will continue to advocate for its fair treatment. This incident comes after the Alberta government brought forward a bill to enable the creation of an independent police agency on March 13. READ MORE: UPDATED: Alberta government introduces bill about independent police agency, ankle bracelets“These changes are part of a broader paradigm shift that reimagines police as an extension of the community rather than as an arm of the state,” said Ellis. “Having a new police agency perform these functions under the legal framework of policing legislation will ensure they’re carried out with the transparency, accountability and independence which Albertans should expect from law enforcement.”
