The Town of Bonnyville council’s request for a peace officer has been authorized.
After submitting an application to the province back in February, the town received notice their request to hire a peace officer has finally been approved.
“It wasn’t a decision made lightly. We just looked at the needs and benefits of the community, and some of the commentary coming to us from the community. We undertook an evaluation analysis, and the decisions were made accordingly,” explained Mayor Gene Sobolewski.
In their draft 2019 capital budget for the project, the town has allocated $100,000 for wages and benefits. Training and development has a price tag of $5,000, while association and telephone fees come in at just over $8,000. While $100,000 will be taken from the town’s RCMP reserve, the remaining costs will be covered through taxes, according to CAO Mark Power.
The peace officer’s vehicle was purchased used from another municipality for $7,000. The cost to outfit the car with all of the equipment was about $14,800. Funding was used from the town’s 2018 budget to cover the expense.
Justice and Solicitor General senior assistant deputy minister William Sweeney authorized the town’s application, with council receiving written confirmation earlier this month.
Now that they’ve received the green light, the town can move forward with the next steps of filling the position.
“Currently, we’re in the middle of recruiting,” noted assistant CAO Bill Rogers during council’s meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Sobolewski added, “I’m hoping (to fill the position) in the new year. It’s all going to be dependent on the recruiting process, the interviews, and all that good stuff.”
Originally, the town contracted their bylaw services through the local RCMP, before deciding to move forward with their own peace officer.
“We had some great individuals (from the RCMP), but there was also the rotation out from other detachments and things like that. We just wanted something a little more stable,” noted Sobolewski.
Prior to the approval, the municipality used an enhanced position with the RCMP to monitor bylaws in Bonnyville, along with their other duties.
The new position will allow more consistency with enforcement of the town’s rules, Sobolewski said.
“Depending on what the detachment’s priorities were, sometimes we didn’t have as much enforcement or consistent enforcement as we would have liked.”
The position will focus solely on enforcing town bylaws, including parking, land use, and cannabis.
Town councillors didn’t take the recent marijuana legalization into account when they originally considered the opportunity.
“Cannabis legalization made things a little more complicated, because of the extra duties and things like that. Now, there’s a requirement for additional enforcement than what we were initially envisioning a year go,” Sobolewski explained.
