With changes coming to the way municipalities deal with the RCMP, the Town of Okotoks wants to focus on local priorities and keep its independence.
The Province amended the Police Act in 2022, and one change is that towns over 15,000 people that use the RCMP are required to establish municipal policing committees.
The provincial government is asking municipalities for feedback to help develop regulations that would lay out the powers, function and composition of the new committees, adding they are being set up to provide guidance and input into policing priorities and goals.
In Okotoks, there is already a process in place, and during a council meeting on Feb. 12, the Town said it has several concerns with how the committees could be set up.
Among them, the Province will be able to set priorities that local committees will need to take into consideration, that might compete with local needs, the Town said.
“We want to be accountable to our community, and we don't want the (provincial) priorities to override what our community needs,” legislative manager Cathy Duplessis said.
The Province will also be able to appoint committee members, CAO Elaine Vincent said during the meeting.
“It does appear that it will have both local appointed and a level of provincial influence,” Vincent said. “I think we need to be very clear that it needs to be a committee working in service to the community, where council has the final authority.”
Mayor Tanya Thorn said she struggles to see the need for a committee, but that there is no problem with one that makes recommendations.
“But at the end of the day, that needs to be an approval by council,” Thorn said.
Coun. Brent Robinson agreed, saying that elected officials should be included in the mix.
“I think a mix of elected and non-elected (members) is the right way to go,” Robinson said.
During the meeting, Okotoks council decided that the Town complete a survey about what it wants to see in the new regulations and to send a letter outlining areas of concern to the minister of public safety.
The Town said it is not aware of a timeline for the implementation of the committees.
