Union members and staff from the Edmonton Remand Centre rally outside the facility in a bid to stop cuts to staff. (CBC)Dozens of union members and Edmonton Remand Centre staff staged an information picket outside the downtown remand centre Friday afternoon.

"Stop the cuts," they chanted as they waved banners on the sidewalk in front of the remand centre.

They were protesting a plan to cut six overnight staff positions at each of the Calgary and Edmonton remands which would mean no inmates could be admitted overnight to either centre.

"Stop the cuts in the public service, because we're dying under the pressure of workload and being put at risk because of cuts like here at [Edmonton Remand Centre]," Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, told the demonstrators. "It's got to stop."

The move to end overnight admissions was also a worrisome prospect for police chiefs in Calgary and Edmonton.

The Edmonton Police Service put out a release Friday about the "potential negative impact on public safety" and called for a committee to be set up to study the changes before they're made.

Later, Chief Boyd told CBC News he had spoken Friday afternoon with the solicitor general.

"He's been working with his staff and they think they've got a solution here," said Boyd. "I don't have the specifics of that, but I think in the next couple of days I'll hear specifically."

The new admission policy at the remand centres was supposed to take effect April 1, but the province has said that's been put on hold.