Alberta is moving to boost staffing for its forthcoming provincial police service through new legislation that aims to make it easier for current Alberta Sheriffs peace officers to become police officers as part of the Alberta Sheriffs Police Service (ASPS).
Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis introduced Bill 15: the Public Safety and Emergency Services Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 in the legislature Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, Ellis said roughly half of the existing 1,200 Alberta Sheriffs already perform “police-like” functions and could undergo six weeks’ worth of training to become full-fledged police officers.
“They’re highly skilled. They are dedicated, and quite frankly, they’ve been doing police-like functions, and this work for a long time,” Ellis said of the sheriffs.
“This is the fastest path to get at least 600 or so police officers on the streets of Alberta trying to assist all police jurisdictions in calls to service right now.”
Ellis said the bill will allow for the formal transition of the Alberta Sheriffs branch into the ASPS, though a timeline for when that will happen has yet to be finalized.
“This bill creates a practical path for the eligible sheriffs to pursue police officer roles within the ASPS, and this is a major milestone in building the new service,” he said.
Alberta Sheriffs currently handle security at the Alberta courthouses and the legislature building in Edmonton and are also responsible for the transfer of prisoners. Sheriffs are also responsible for some highway traffic enforcement along with surveillance and fugitive apprehension, all of which Ellis identified as “police-like functions.”
Department staff told reporters that the non-police roles currently performed by sheriffs will fall to the ASPS.
On cost, Ellis said more details would be revealed in Thursday’s budget, which is forecast to be a second consecutive multi-billion dollar deficit.
“There’s going to be an increased cost in that, and we have factored that into those increases, but that is something that will be coming out in the upcoming budget,” he said.
The bill, in essence, transfers the budget and staff of the current Alberta Sheriffs branch to the Crown corporation the province established
through legislation last spring
.
‘It’s about creating more safety’
“This isn’t about creating more government. It’s about creating more safety.”
Tuesday’s legislation is the latest in a number of gradual steps the province has taken over the past months towards establishing an independent police agency.
Alberta’s police service agreement with the RCMP is set to expire in 2032.
The provincial government asked about an Alberta police service in
between last July and October but respondents expressed skepticism at the idea.
Of the six topics surveyed, it was the only one to fail to attract majority support, and 52 per cent of respondents also expressed concern that costs to operate a new service would exceed that of the current policing contract with Ottawa.
Public safety critic David Shepherd noted that Tuesday’s bill won’t address existing issues with police recruitment or put any more boots on the ground, and could lead to sheriffs who choose not to join the new police service being overworked.
“If we’re moving more sheriffs away from those key services, while the minister is having the same problems as every other police service in Canada, in terms of the improvement, we have to ask, what impact is that going to have?”
He added he was concerned about getting peace officers trained as police officers within the six-week time frame, as well as the continued absence of cost estimates, which could be spread over multiple years.
“It’s so essential that the minister has to provide some transparency on, certainly, what he’s going to be charging municipalities, but also, what is the cost going to be to Alberta taxpayers?”