Town of Vermilion council welcomed Sgt. Ken Shamblaw as the community’s new RCMP detachment commander.
He assumed the role in early January after former commander Sgt. Corey Buckingham left the position in late June 2025 for the Onion Lake RCMP detachment.
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Shamblaw brings more than a decade of policing experience with him to the post.
“I’ve been with the RCMP for 15 years; this is my second career. I sort of started later and went through depot at 43,” he said at the Jan. 20 regular council meeting.
“I have served in Sherwood Park for most of my career. From Sherwood Park, I moved to Consort. Small town has always been where I wanted to end up, so I went to probably the smallest town in Alberta that has a detachment.”
Shamblaw noted this will be his last post.
“This opportunity came up for a promotion. This is my last post, my last five or six years with the force,” he explained.
Under the new leadership, changes to some processes will be coming.
“We’re going to have a new process for speaking with the community members and council about policing priorities,” said Shamblaw. “I’m looking forward to working with everyone here. I have lots of things I want to get done, some of them quicker than others. We’re coming up to the end of our fiscal year and the new one will start (in) April.”
In terms of policing, he says there’s typical priorities for a small town, but he urged council to share anything their constituents deem important for policing.
“My experience with small towns is usually the three that are always the top hitters, which are property crime, traffic enforcement and drugs,” he said. “If there’s something else residents feel they would like to be addressed, we will be having a further meeting where we actually discuss what the priorities for the town will be.”
Shamblaw also noted he had the opportunity to speak with the fire chief and wants to do a tabletop exercise.
“I asked him when was the last time this town had been involved in a tabletop exercise of some type of disaster.” he said. “My understanding is, it’s been a bit.
“I’m going to talk with chief, we’re going to come up with a scenario, determine who the players are, who should be here and have that initial discussion because we all need to know what your job is if that fire comes over the hill.”
He says his passion is small towns and plans to help the local food bank.
“My passion in towns has always been the food bank,” Shamblaw explained. “I’m very community involved, small town is my passion so you will see me a lot and at a lot of different venues.”
He wants to make this a reality by working alongside the local junior B hockey team, the Vermilion Tigers.
“One of my ideas is to get a hold of the junior B hockey team and see if we can set up where (fans) have to bring a can to come see a game,” he said. “I’ll park a cruiser outside and we’ll stuff the cruiser.”
Coun. Kellen Snelgrove agreed with the need to do a tabletop exercise.
“I agree wholeheartedly. A tabletop exercise with council would be a fantastic idea,” he said. “I know the last I’d done was with the Vermilion Ag Society in preparation for the fair and thought it was incredibly useful.”
While it was only a short time after Shamblaw arrived in Vermilion, Coun. Justin Clark said his presence in the community is important.
“I have a lot of respect for what you do in the community,” said Clark, whose father is a retired RCMP member. “I’d also like to thank you for doing laps around the community. I was trying to figure out why there was a cruiser driving by my house. Turns out, it was you. I think your presence is very much appreciated and welcomed.”
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