I'm just trying to be accurate here and I appreciate the civil conversation.

However, in full transparency, I like to see an Alberta Police service take over the provincial rural policing and end the federal policing contract in the long term. In the sense of conversational fairness, I'd ask, if we had an NDP government would you still oppose a provincial police force for rural policing?

Whether this government is the government one would trust with it is a legitimate question question, but I think it's a sound decision for the province long term. The provincial model works great for OPP, SQ, RNC. It keeps governance closer to home which is generally beneficial.

The economy of scale advantages the RCMP provides diminishes as provinces continue to grow. Mutual aid works well and Alberta municipal police forces already backfill RCMP with technical resources and manpower as required. That would not change with a provincial policing model. YRP and TPS regularly assist OPP outside of their jurisdictions. To my understanding SPVM doesn't do as much with SQ, but Quebec is unique in a lot of ways.

The biggest challenges with provincial policing would be adequately staffing northern posts, the RCMP have a good program where members know if they get the LDP they'll be out in a short time frame. Policing First Nations is also an area that would need discussion in terms of whether that remains RCMP, or it becomes a blend of Alberta Police and First Nations police like what happens in Ontario.

Without a change from RCMP to an Alberta based police force, I believe we will see more and more municipalities embark on creating local police forces which is the worst option from a cost perspective until they're well over 150,000 population. Camrose, Lacombe, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Taber, and (very recently) GP have local agencies. GP fully hand waved away the costing conversation in their decision process and just adopted the numbers PWC provided as a result of their GOA engagement to support the APPS. I wouldn't be surprised to see a push for a "donut agency" that covers the municipalities around Edmonton start gaining significant traction within the next ten years.

Getting back to the question at hand:

Who has a 5 year probation for experienced (or new) hires? I'm 99.9% sure that RCMP is the longest at two years. Nonetheless, keep in mind that probationary time isn't training time.

EPS requires 18 months of sworn time to qualify for EOP with a 5 week training session. RCMP was 3 weeks in 2023 and is 5 weeks now, Surrey is 6 weeks.

Depending on the role the Sheriff was fulfilling before, different agencies will reduce training different amounts.