Animal control services will soon become the responsibility of Innisfail's two community peace officers.
Previously Alberta Animal Services, contracted through the town, dealt with animal issues. During the council meeting Feb. 26, council agreed to end its agreement with the service group effective June 1.
“We think we can provide a higher level of service in the community than what we were able to do with the contractor and both officers are interested and willing to take this on,” explained Darryl Joyce, director of corporate and protective services, after the council meeting.
Last June, the second peace officer started and at that time the town restructured its contract with Alberta Animal services to 32 patrol hours a month, he explained.
“We're talking about maybe three shifts a week of a couple of hours maybe, so there's not a lot of extensive coverage in town, so there was a limited amount of stuff they could do,” he said, adding any issues that came up when they weren't on shift would result in extra charges.
The two peace officers, who both currently work full time, will now be able to patrol issues relevant to the dog and cat bylaw on a more frequent basis, he added.
“Issues that have come up in the community have been people not picking up after their dogs when out walking, or dogs out at large or not on their leads,” he said. “There's going to be a lot more education and enforcement. We hear from members of the community there's issues with the amount of dog poop laying around and those are going to be areas that are looked at.”
The in-house service also means a cost saving of $30,000 budgeted for the contracted services, vet fees and extra housing.
“There will be some startup costs this year we're going to undertake but it's going to be nowhere near what the cost savings will be once the contract is over with the Alberta Animal Services.”
During council, the recommendation to provide in-house services was agreed upon unanimously.
“I think this is great,” said Coun. Jason Heistad. “I think (the officers) will be a lot more effective in the community dealing with the bylaws.”
Mayor Jim Romane agreed but added this year can be looked at as a trial.
“I think we can try it out this year and see how it goes and see if we need to reconsider anything next year.”
