Edmonton police chief says new provincial bill will help balance police commission
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Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee says the Alberta government giving itself the power to be able to appoint police commission members will balance the existing ability of city council.
On Thursday, the provincial government introduced Bill 6: the Police Amendment Act, which if passed will grant the province the power to appoint members to local police commissions.
McFee has already expressed support for the bill, but at an unrelated event Saturday said it won’t politicize commissions, adding most provinces have a similar structure already.
“It basically puts balance into the equation. If you look at it, just all of council doing all the appointments, that’s one-dimensional. If you look at council, with a combination of province … this just makes sense. It’s not a bad thing. It’s nothing that we should be fearing,” said McFee.
“This isn’t something that concerns me and those that are concerned — I wonder why they would be concerned,” he said.
His comments come after the proposed bill was criticized by Alberta’s Opposition NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir, who warned the legislation will give the UCP government sweeping powers to interfere in local policing commissions.
“It is a disturbing step towards the politicization of policing from a government that has a record of political interference in law enforcement and the administration of justice,” said Sabir.
The Alberta government has said the bill, if passed, will also limit the practice of police investigating police through the creation of a new independent watchdog agency, the Police Review Commission. It would have the authority to investigate and conduct hearings into complaints against police.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) will be transitioned under the new agency’s structure. ASIRT’s authority would also be expanded to include investigating peace officers in situations involving serious injury or death, something currently done by police.
McFee said those changes will add a level of transparency and accountability.
“The community has been asking for this for a long time,” he said, noting the changes follow years of consultations that started in 2018 under Rachel Notley’s NDP government.
The head of ASIRT resigned last November after months of complaints about file backlogs and funding shortfalls, having only recently completed an investigation dating back to 2018.
The province did not have an estimated budget for the new agency when it introduced its new bill Thursday, although ASIRT’s budget was increased by 35 per cent in 2022, to $5.3 million.
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