An Innisfail town councilor says it’s time for the town to reopen the curfew debate.
Coun. Jason Heistad raised the idea during the May 9 town council meeting after seeing a graffiti message scrawled on the east wall of the Innisfail Public Library. Heistad had been one of two councilors to argue against including the curfew in the Community Standards Bylaw when it was passed in October.
“You’re going to have kids that are going to break curfew no matter what,” Heistad said, explaining he felt the bylaw had been rushed through by the previous council weeks before the municipal election. “I’d rather see us policing our town and working with young people.”
The graffiti asks, “So what exactly is the curfew for?” Heistad said the author of the graffiti message makes a good point.
“Why have a curfew if you’re not enforcing it?” he asked. “That’s why I brought it up.”
S. Sgt. Lyle Marianchuk, Innisfail RCMP detachment commander, said even with the curfew in place the RCMP’s focus remains on building relationships with local youth. He said the force would only use the bylaw as a last resort.
“It’s an excellent tool in our tool box. In my experience, it’s a tool that won’t be used that often,” he said.
Marianchuk said if police see a group of youth out after the curfew, they would work to build relationships. Officers will typically gather names and information and ask the youth to return home, after informing the youth that they will be the first people police will approach if vandalism occurs later on in the evening.
“That usually was enough,” he said.
Marianchuk said he had informed the previous council that the curfew would do little to limit vandalism in town.
“The resources just aren’t there,” he explained.
In addition to manpower issues, Heistad argued the curfew paints all youth with one broad brushstroke.
“Not all kids that are out late are doing bad stuff. There are some great kids in town. They just might be hanging out,” he said. “My concern is we basically need to be communicating with young people.”
Heistad alleged that young adults leaving the local bars at late hours are also causing problems.
“That was my concern previous to this new council,” he said. “It’s not just the young people. We have people leaving the establishments in town causing some of the problems.”
Coun. Derek Baird, who voted in favour of the bylaw in October, said that he was open to the idea of reexamining the bylaw to eliminate a number of grey areas, including what the RCMP would do with a youth violating curfew that cannot be returned home. He said council should get some input from residents, including the youth directly affected by the bylaw, something that did not happen last year.
“That’s definitely something that should be encouraged,” he said.
But Baird said he would hate to see the curfew repealed, saying it was a necessary tool.
“I don’t want to see it die, myself,” he said. “The good kids will be taken in by the not so good kids in some cases.”
