Re: “Crime fight money welcome,” p. 3, March 13 Gazette.
While I applaud MLA Jason Nixon and the scores of others concerned with the escalation of rural and backcountry crime in Alberta, I believe an additional priority should have been made.
Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers were given the status of "eyes and ears only," along with sheriffs and commercial vehicle inspection officers.
It is certainly true that the last two agencies have a mandate that keeps them on the highways only, whereas wildlife officers cover the entire province including national parks and military bases.
During my 34.5-year career in Alberta, I conducted numerous investigations and patrols, on both provincial and federal parkland and military bases, and I might add, in the majority of cases, at their requests.
Alberta Fish and Wildlife Enforcement is also the only agency in the province with “bear response teams” (BRT) dedicated solely to investigating and disposing of large predators, if necessary, such as grizzly bears and cougars that have mauled or killed people and livestock.
Since 1995 all wildlife officers attend 16 weeks of intensive law enforcement training, including, but not limited to, the use of large bore rifles, shotguns and handguns.
They are only eligible for this course after they have earned a three- to five- year degree in natural resources or biological sciences.
Included in the in-service training is enforcement in all applicable provincial statutes, the Criminal Code and many different federal and international endangered species legislation. Alberta's force of 90 (yes, only 90!) wildlife officers may exceed Alberta's municipal police services such as Medicine Hat or the RCMP in dedicated training.
During my career, which I retired from in 2008, I investigated and solved cases in Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., Ontario, Yukon and Idaho.
I concluded a three-month case of arson of a northern trading post at Sandy Lake, when the RCMP could not get into the area with their equipment.
I dealt with investigations and prosecutions in trafficking of wildlife, assault a peace officer, hunt and chase wildlife with an aircraft, impaired boating, possession of drugs, theft, possess stolen property, breach of trust, licence fraud, insurance fraud, and of course a multitude of provincial matters such as the Liquor and Gaming Act and the Highway Safety Act.
Now it appears that the few Fish and Wildlife officers left to do field duties are going to be the primary agency to enforce backcountry OHV legislation and environmentally sensitive matters such as destroying fish spawning waters, to name a very few, because they are frequently there doing other duties (such as investigating poaching and bear attacks).
It is no accident that Fish and Wildlife officers are legally, and factually, also referred to as “game wardens.”
Other provinces and territories in Canada have gazetted their resource enforcement people as conservation officers, mainly because they are not “full-time” game wardens, but have a mixed bag of provincial park, forestry, environmental and other park bylaw duties, and summary conviction duties as is done by park rangers in Alberta.
So, I contend that our wildlife enforcement officers are a little more than “eyes and ears” for the rural police.
If my career record of several hundred criminal apprehensions in the rural areas is an indicator, then I would hazard to say that many hundreds of crimes are detected or prevented by the game warden presence in Alberta.
I was in court to give evidence over 200 times, and many of these cases were criminal in nature; or more than likely, a combination of poaching and criminal matters relating to the poaching.
As I mentioned earlier, Alberta’s Fish and Wildlife officers are down to 90 officers from a high of 135 about the time I retired. Quick math shows me that we have suffered a 33.3 per cent decline in numbers.
During this time period, Alberta’s population increased by a similar amount. When I wrote my books, I had occasion to calculate the manpower density and area patrolled by wildlife officers in Alberta.
My estimate, at the time of my fourth book in 2013, was 47,000 citizens and 2,775 square miles per officer. Municipal police departments get worried when their ratio exceeds one officer per 650 citizens. And I know, game wardens don’t do a tremendous amount in Alberta's cites, but oddly enough are stationed in all of them.
My incredulity of this article should really be addressed to Ms. Ganley, justice minister, and Mr. W. Sweeney, assistant deputy minister in charge of provincial enforcement officers, for their oversight in allocating funds to hire 40 new RCMP officers to fight rural (and I believe “backcountry” is included) crime, when we are also approximately 40 wildlife officers short.
Referencing the reporting of this article, Alberta is already down by 245 RCMP members, which according to my calculations is at or under 10 per cent of their total complement.
This drop in a bucket of 40 police officers hired, who seldom in my experience have time to leave the city or blacktop, would be much better served by hiring 40 wildlife officers, who do leave these areas.
I am also of the belief, as a result of research for my five Alberta "Game Warden" books, that it costs between half and two-thirds as much to put a wildlife officer versus an RCMP officer on duty.
If you take this as correct, the funding for 40 police officers on the street, would put from 53 to 80 wildlife officers in the back areas that are "theoretically," at least, not patrolled as often, and where one of the worst crime spikes seems to be occurring.
Murray Bates
Sundre
