Siksika Nation and the Minister of Justice, Tyler Shandro, took steps to strengthen Alberta’s relationship with the Nation and officially sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The signing ceremony occurred in the Siksika Nation administrative building council chambers, with several members of the Chief and Council and from the Justice Minister’s office. This MOU is one of the pivotal steps to ensuring funding will be available to assist with the establishment and security of the police force and sustain the relationship provincially and, soon, federally.
Siksika Nation is one of the largest First Nations reserves in Canada based on land. Establishing Siksika’s police force would ensure safety for the community, surrounding communities, and Albertans. The police force would also ensure that response times would be drastically cut short and be by those who know the Nation first-hand. The Nation once had its own police force from 1992-2002, but was defunct due to lack of funding.
Talks with the federal government will occur in the coming weeks and are essential to Siksika Nation moving forward promptly. Estimates of the establishment of the police force and infrastructure will hopefully be in the next five years.