CANMORE – The Canmore RCMP detachment has a new staff sergeant.
Staff Sgt. Ryan Singleton has taken over managing the community's RCMP operations, as well as rural services for the MD of Bighorn, coming to the community from the Cochrane detachment.
Singleton appeared in front of Canmore council at the beginning of July and in addition to introductions, he put forward a five year financial plan for the detachment that requested council approve an additional support staff and two officer positions in the 2021-26 municipal budget.
But elected officials also took the opportunity to ask him about how he intends to address the issue of systemic racism at the local level after two weeks on the job.
"I hope to really work with the community on some of these topics," Singleton said.
Singleton's background in the RCMP since he joined the force in 2000 has included postings in B.C. and Alberta, time with the drugs and serious crimes sections, as well as with major crimes and the RCMP's professional responsibility unit.
He said as a trained harassment investigator, he has a different perspective and promised to lead the detachment by creating a respectful environment and workplace.
Singleton said at council he has an open door policy and hopes to conduct community engagement on these issues. He said he is a big proponent of engaging youth and focusing on being part of the community, not just policing it.
"I think we have a lot of work to do and I think we have the right leadership and right people in place to really address these concerns," he said.
Manager of protective service Greg Burt presented the multi-year RCMP financial plan to council for planning purposes.
"The municipal police service agreement requires Town administration and the RCMP to meet on an annual basis to prepare a three-to-five-year financial plan," Burt said. "This is the second multi-year financial plan administration and the RCMP have developed."
The plan looks at the number of positions at the detachment, staffing resources to support RCMP officers, accommodation and equipment needs. In addition to the two new officer positions proposed for 2023 and 2024 at a cost of $154,056 each, the financial plan requested a support staff position for $83,000 over the next five years as well.
As a budget request, administration will prepare a detailed report to council for consideration in December. According to the staff report, that will include the status of photo radar and an analysis of the community peace officer traffic program.
The budget will also include the anticipated increase in costs for policing overall for the municipality. In Alberta, the funding formula between the municipality and the province changes at a 15,000 population threshold. It is expected that Canmore will exceed that in the 2021 federal census and would go from a 70/30 funding split with the province to 90/10.
Sgt. Stan Andronyk said Alberta RCMP K-Division operation strategy branch also assisted in the creation of the financial plan, which set out that the two new positions would be a dual role of traffic enforcement and community resource officer.
"We are out in the community and we are paying attention to what the community says is needed," Andronyk said. "Over the next five years, we would be looking at asking for two additional detachment members."
Specifically, he said the new positions would allow for a consistent traffic presence in the community and allow the detachment to better manage requests from the community that fall outside the RCMP's core policing mandate.
That would include a dedicated role within local schools.
"It would also make sure we have a good presence in the schools with a school resource program," Andronyk said. "We do not currently have a school resource officer."
As for traffic enforcement, he said the new officers would be able to focus on the high-risk areas identified in the community already.
"We have areas where stop signs and speeding issues are a problem," Andronyk said. "We do not want to wait until there is a collision or major incident. We want to keep moving forward with success."
Currently, the detachment has 17 officers, including the staff sergeant and sergeant, as well as two general investigation section officers for a total of 19 members. In addition to that are four support staff positions.
There was discussion about the police to population ratio, which would suggest Canmore is well policed already. In 2018, the provincial average for detachments with populations between 10,000 and 19,999 is one officer to every 826 residents. Canmore's ratio was 1:846.
But Andronyk said if a visitor population is calculated into the ratio for a population of 25,000, it would be a different story – for a ratio of 1:1,315.
"If you adjust the numbers to the number of people who come to Canmore, especially in the summer months ... our police to population all of a sudden is quite high," Andronyk said.
Mayor John Borrowman, however, noted that if the two new officers were added into that ratio as well, it would be 1:1,200 instead.
"It reduces it, but it is still above the provincial average," he said.
While the provincial government splits the cost of policing for municipalities, it does not offer any additional funding to help police the tourist population in the valley.
But even with the population bump on any given day due to visitation, Canmore's crime statistics reflect a safe community. The number of criminal code cases per member for Canmore in 2018 was 61, versus 87 as the average for detachments in Alberta with a similar population.
The total criminal offences for the Canmore detachment decreased by 10 per cent between 2018-19. Person-to-person crimes like assault and uttering threats decreased by 11 per cent, property crimes decreased by nine per cent and other criminal code offences decreased by 11 per cent.
Canmore's crime severity index rating was the lowest in Alberta for municipalities with populations of 15,000 or less.
While the detachment building is owned by the RCMP, the town pays $250,000 in accommodation costs. An expansion has long been discussed, and could still be in the works.
"We are looking at an upcoming renovation," Andronyk said. "It is not going to increase the size, but efficient use of space."
Burt said it takes a long time to move through the process to build a new detachment. But with the community expected to continue growing, and tourism continuing to bring visitors to the valley, the discussions are happening.
"What does [the detachment] look like in five years, 10 years from now as Canmore continues to grow," he said. "We are really starting to think about that long-term planning and recognizing we are good for now, but at some point ... we are going to have to look at a new building, addition or location."
The last time the RCMP in Canmore added positions at the detachment was in 2008.
