Alberta Next Recommendations Snub Albertans Ahead of 2026

With only days to go in 2025, the Alberta Next Panel quietly released its report and recommendations. Even after years of Albertans consistently opposing the creation of a new provincial police service, the report includes recommendations pushing for the development of the Alberta Police Service (APS) and transitioning community policing from the RCMP to APS and municipal services.

The Government’s report relies on selective and misleading claims, all while citing polling that was not made public, lacked transparency, and failed to properly target RCMP-served communities. And you deserve to know the true facts.

According to their recommendations, the Alberta Government “do not believe a referendum on this topic is appropriate given that the vast majority of Albertans are already served by municipal police services.” (Alberta Next Panel Recommendations, p. 8)

→ This is false. The RCMP serves 40% of Alberta’s population and 99% of Alberta’s landmass, including rural municipalities, and research confirms that 74% of Albertans want a referendum.

The Panel falsely frames the previous federal government’s white paper from March as the RCMP leaving contract policing. (Alberta Next Panel Recommendations, p. 9). In fact, the Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment multiple times to contract policing beyond 2032, making this argument wrong and misleading.

“Professional polling survey: 52% oppose (polling unable to target only those 20% of Albertans served by the RCMP).” (Alberta Next Panel Recommendations, p. 8)

→ Eight waves of independent public opinion research by Pollara Strategic Insights completed since 2020 confirm Albertans overwhelmingly support RCMP Members. 76% of Albertans in RCMP-served communities are satisfied with policing, and only 9% support a provincial replacement [Pollara, 2025]. Yet the Government’s flawed polling shows more than half oppose replacing the RCMP.