Province funding 50 more Edmonton Police Service Officers to tackle high crime areas

Safer streets for Edmonton

Alberta’s government is fighting rising crime in Edmonton with an $8.3-million investment to help hire 50 new police officers.

Edmontonians have a right to walk through their city streets or take public transit without fearing for their safety. Due to rising acts of violence, the government is taking direct action to keep Edmontonians safe.

By investing in the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to support their efforts to recruit, train and deploy 50 new officers, high-crime areas like transit centres and the downtown core will see increased police presence.

“Our government will do whatever it takes to address the concerning escalating crime rates, particularly in vital areas like public transit and the downtown core where social disorder is prevalent. This funding will help strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement and make sure they have the necessary tools and personnel to improve public safety and fight criminals who continue to prey on vulnerable residents.”

Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services

The EPS is actively recruiting new members for this initiative. These additional officers will be strategically placed in high-crime areas with the flexibility to be redeployed to other parts of the city based on evolving needs. Provincial funding will help pay for police officer salaries and benefits and equipment needs like vehicles, uniforms, radios and body-worn cameras.

“These are much-needed resources, and though hiring and training will take time before officers hit city streets, we know their presence will accelerate our existing efforts. We have redeployed our front-line resources to places like transit and the downtown and have increased recruit class sizes to get ahead of service demands, and these additional officers are the next step in tackling Edmonton’s high-crime areas. We are grateful for the funding and support of the provincial government and look forward to the impact the officers will have on our streets.”

Dale McFee, chief, Edmonton Police Service

“Edmontonians have been loud and clear that safe public spaces are a priority. The funding and prioritization of transit centres and the core is an investment in our shared, long-term commitment to create a safe and vibrant city.”

Sarah Hamilton, Ward sipiwiyiniwak councillor, City of Edmonton

“The Edmonton Police Commission has advocated for police funding necessary to address the myriad community safety issues facing our city, and we appreciate the provincial government making good on its commitment to fund 50 additional front-line officers. This investment will help support the police service’s long-term strategy of making our streets safer.”

Erick Ambtman, chair, Edmonton Police Commission

“The DRC appreciates the collaborative effort the Edmonton Police Service and provincial government have put into addressing high-crime areas. We know from other cities that the presence of law enforcement and proactive policing increases the perception of safety and can even reduce incidents of crime and disorder. Through this funding, we look forward to seeing more police deployed throughout the core, working towards a safer, more vibrant and more connected downtown.”

Alex Hryciw, chair, Downtown Recovery Coalition

The addition of new officers builds on several actions the government has already taken to improve public safety on Edmonton’s streets, including implementing a pilot project to team Alberta Sheriffs with EPS officers, adding more local positions to the Sheriffs’ Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit, and a $5-million grant to improve safety on the city’s transit network.

Quick facts

Funding breakdown:
- $4.5 million for officer salaries and benefits
- $2.5 million for one-time costs like vehicles, uniforms, radios and workstations
- $850,000 for ongoing technology costs
- $500,000 for one-time recruitment expansion efforts

Alberta awash in corporate welfare

Published on July 26, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Matthew Lau

To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.

First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.

The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.

For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.

Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.

Consider these federally-subsidized projects.

A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.

When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.

As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.

Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.

Author:

Matthew Lau

Adjunct Scholar, Fraser Institute

Alberta

‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial

Published on July 25, 2024

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Ray McGinnis

Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.

Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”

On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”

One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”

Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.

Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.