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City of Wetaskiwin council lobbying lands more police funding

Grant-funded positions receive $458,740 from province
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The City of Wetaskiwin has announced that lobbying efforts for funding and support of Wetaskiwin’s public safety infrastructure has paid off.

Following a meeting with Mayor Tyler Gandam in November, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis stated in a letter dated Tuesday, Dec. 17, that the province would continue to fund four local RCMP positions to the tune of $458,739.79, the city said in a press release.

According to the city, the province approved funding for 10 supplementary police resources within the Wetaskiwin-Camrose Detachment in July 2021, in order to address Wetaskiwin's Crime Severity Index "primarily associated with vagrancy, homelessness, domestic violence and possession of weapons that lead to a general public feeling of an unsafe community."

The grant funding was split between two policing contracts — the Municipal Police Service Agreement and Provincial Police Service Agreement — with four positions being allocated municipally and six allocated provincially.

As the three-year pilot of 10 provincially-funded RCMP members comes to a close, the funding for the four municipal RCMP members has been secured until the end of March 2025.

"Minister Ellis committed to working with the city on a long-term plan for the officers," said Gandam.

"City manager Sue Howard and I will be meeting with his assistant deputy minister, Curtis Zablocki, to work through those details,” said Mayor Gandam.

Gandam added the six provincial RCMP members have been "naturalized" and are a part of the member complement in the detachment funded by the province.

"The County of Wetaskiwin has been a great partner throughout this endeavour, helping share the concerns we have and advocating for the additional resources," he said.

“I am happy the Government of Alberta sees the need for additional resources in Wetaskiwin and I will continue to work with them to help address the high social needs we have here.”

The release also noted the support of Maskwacis–Wetaskiwin MLA Rick Wilson and his efforts to advocate for the community.

The four grant-funded positions are part of the RCMP’s frontline watches, responsible for day-to-day calls to service and crime reduction initiatives, enabling the detachment the resources and flexibility to engage in proactive policing activities, such as the southside task force, diversion initiatives, community events, and offender management without negatively impacting operations, the release stated.

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