On Tuesday (Mar. 22), the government introduced Bill 9, The Public's Right to Know Act, intended to help Albertans "better understand the impact of crime and the criminal justice system." 

Alberta's minister of justice and solicitor general, Tyler Shandro, said the bill would require crime data to be reported annually by tabling a report in the legislature and publishing the information on the government website.
  
Additionally, the bill would allow the province to enable information-sharing agreements with the federal government, municipalities, other provinces and territories, and police services. It would also let the government highlight statistics on serious offences, including violent crimes. 

Shandro said improving access to information through Bill 9 is in response to a 2019 tour of the province, in which officials heard people wanted more consistency in crime reporting. 

"The former minister of justice and solicitor general, Doug Schweitzer, heard from many rural Albertans who were concerned about crime, and they told him at the time that they wanted more information about what's happening in their communities," he explained. 

"We have so many different sources of crime data available throughout the province that are not keeping these metrics in a consistent way." 

If passed, Bill 9 would come into force in the fall 2022 legislative session, with the first report delivered in spring 2023. 

Other actions the province has taken to understand rural crime better includes another tour in 2021, where the then justice minister, Kaycee Madu, held several town hall meetings with residents. During an August meeting in Bruderhiem with Madu, residents said their biggest concern was the "catch and release of repeat offenders."