Bylaw enforcement is about to become more prevalent in the Town of Bonnyville.
Council voted in favour of implementing a community peace officer program during their Feb. 13 meeting.
Currently, bylaw enforcement is assigned to a member of the local RCMP detachment, in addition to their regular duties. The new program will see the creation of a position dedicated entirely to enforcing the town's rules.
“We used an enhanced position with the RCMP to administer our bylaws, in conjunction with their responsibilities. Essentially, we pay for another RCMP member, and part of the time, they do our bylaws for us,” explained assistant CAO Bill Rogers.
Administration put forward the recommendation to train a level one community peace officer. They would be able to enforce penalties on a wide-variety of infractions.
Having an officer work for the town would also ensure there's always an enforcement presence, in the event the RCMP are called out on provincial matters.
“We would, in effect, start our own in-house program. Our officer would be able to focus on bylaw enforcement, traffic safety, gaming and liquor statutes, unsightly properties, things we deal with on a regular basis,” Rogers explained. “We feel we would get more time from this position than we do from the enhanced position.”
When the program is initiated, the RCMP bylaw officer will continue for at least one-year from the date the detachment receives official notification from the town of the program's creation.
According to council, this could also mean an extra member for the local RCMP, at least until the contract is up. However, the RCMP declined comment at this time regarding what would happen to the position moving forward.
“We've discussed what would happen if this comes up and the sense is the RCMP are prepared to, for the balance of the year, put that officer back into regular duties. They would absorb it and we would get enhanced policing as opposed to enhanced bylaw service,” said CAO Mark Power.
To initiate the program, council will use money from the RCMP reserve fund to cover startup costs. This will include a $1,000 application to the Solicitor General, up to $75,000 for a new vehicle, $4,400 for uniforms and equipment, and around $5,200 for computer equipment.
“We're hoping to get more service for no extra money than we're already spending, aside from startup costs,” Rogers said.
A few councillors disagreed with the idea of putting extra dollars towards policing.
“I'm not sure I like the idea of spending more when we already put $1.2-million toward policing services,” Coun. Chad Colbourne said.
Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski took a different approach. While still taking the dollars they get in return into account, he explained it's more about creating a presence within the town.
“The goal of this is to deal with the influx of complaints on the lack of bylaw enforcement within this community. When we had the enhanced position and there were other needs around the province, bylaw suffered, and we had years where it wasn't there. It's not about revenue, it's about enforcement,” expressed Sobolewski.
After a lengthy discussion on the matter, it was Coun. Brian McEvoy that made the motion to approve the creation of the program. Council voted unanimously in favour of starting the process.
Currently, there's no timeframe for when the new position will be filled.
