Nunavut looking to Alberta to bolster RCMP oversight

Nunavut's Department of Justice is "actively working" with the Alberta police oversight agency to contract its services for the territory, a department spokesperson told CBC News. 

The department plans to introduce new legislation that would allow for such a contract, said Jessica Young, assistant deputy minister. 

The legislation "doesn't focus on a specific agency, it allows us to enter into a contract with any organization," said Young. 

"We've actually reached out to quite a few jurisdictions, but we are actively working with ASIRT — the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team right now." 

Young said the legislation to allow for such a contracted service will be introduced during the fall sitting of the Nunavut legislature, which begins Sept. 21. 

The Nunavut government has been under pressure for years to increase oversight of the RCMP, which it contracts to provide policing service in all 25 communities. Currently, when a serious incident occurs in Nunavut involving police — such as a shooting death — the RCMP investigate themselves or Ottawa or Calgary police are called in to investigate. 

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is civilian-led, but all of its investigators are former law enforcement officers. Its executive director, Sue Hughson, told The Calgary Herald last summer that the agency was at "maximum capacity" with a growing backlog of files. 

Government struggles to consult communities

With the growing spotlight on policing across North America and in Nunavut this year, some Inuit have raised questions to CBC about what local involvement there would be in investigations of serious police incidents. 

In August, Nunavut's top RCMP officer Chief Supt. Amanda Jones told CBC she would support local representation in investigations into serious incidents. 

In most jurisdictions where the RCMP do not police, a board made up of community members oversees the local police. But because the RCMP is a federal agency, no such board currently exists in Nunavut. 

Jones said V Division would support something like a local police board, if that's what Nunavummiut and the justice department want. 

"It is a priority for us to ensure that communities have involvement and they are heard when it comes to investigations," she previously told CBC.

Young, with the justice department, said the government is not considering a local police board model at this time and that the RCMP have the ability to consult communities on their own. 

"There are other options [besides the police board] in terms of their detachment policing plans, where they can meet with community members and local stakeholders to determine what policing in their communities can look like," Young said. 

When asked how the government knows what Nunavummiut want from their police, Young said the department is still figuring that out. 

"These are things that we're looking at more right now in terms of how we go about getting community involvement and we get responses from the community. We don't have anything specific right now."