Provincial police (Canada)

In the Canadian Republic, each of its 13 provinces has its own unique law enforcement agency directly accountable to the provincial government; such agencies are generically referred to as provincial police (French: police(s) provinciale(s)), the common name for any one of the provincial agencies, which are responsible for handling all local and regional policing in all counties and municipalities of the province. Each provincial police force is immediately subordinate to the respective province's justice ministry via the attorney general of the province, who in all cases chairs the provincial justice ministry. Provincial police are responsible for enforcing the Criminal Code in their respective province and are peace officers with jurisdiction in all parts of the respective province.

Each province typically also maintains a sheriff service which is responsible for the administration and security of the provincial court system (judicial police and bailiff services), and provision of security for the provincial government (including protection of provincial government property, assignment of permanent security details to the deputy president, the premier, the Deputy Premier and other senior provincial government officials, and assignment of temporary security details to visiting heads of government and of state, visiting diplomats and international delegates, and other civilian VIPs); visiting federal or military personnel of foreign states are instead protected by the Canadian Armed Forces, namely the Executive Security Corps of the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie (RCG–ESC).

Provincial remand centres, prisons and similar institutions as well as parole and probation services are administered by either the provincial sheriff service (which may or may not be part of the provincial police) or the provincial corrections agency subordinate to the respective province's attorney general via the solicitor general. Each provincial police force has its own ranking system, most of which are more or less identical but others of which are more unique to the agency, The thirteen provinces' individual police acts, which govern the establishment/constitution, organisation, authority and operational norms of the provincial police, are each an act of the respective provincial assembly, and as such are considered provincial-level statutory law.

By contrast, the five territories of Canada as well as the federal capital district of Ottawa, unlike the 13 provinces, are policed on a contract basis by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada's primary federal police and its largest law enforcement agency by number of employees, as well as by number of vehicles (automobiles, watercraft and aircraft), detachments and other facilities, and technical resources like forensics; within the 13 provinces, the RCMP retains jurisdiction over any and all federal law enforcement matters, such as nationwide manhunts and assistance to provincial police or the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie with major law enforcement operations.

List
Below is a list of all thirteen provincial police agencies, sorted alphabetically by formal name:


 * 1) Alaska Provincial Police
 * 2) Alberta Provincial Office
 * 3) British Columbia Provincial Police
 * 4) Labrador Provincial Police
 * 5) Manitoba Provincial Police
 * 6) New Brunswick Public Security
 * 7) Nova Scotia Provincial Police
 * 8) Ontario Provincial Police
 * 9) Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
 * 10) Royal Prince Edward Constabulary
 * 11) Saskatchewan Provincial Police
 * 12) Sûreté du Québec
 * 13) Vancouver Island Provincial Police