Business and RCMP join to plead for Gleichen bylaw

Times Contributor  

 

Staff Sgt. James McLaren of the Gleichen RCMP detachment and Gleichen Family Foods owner, Willie Vira, met with Wheatland Council to plead for a bylaw that would help deal with the loitering, pan handling, intoxication and bad behavior on Main Street in Gleichen.

“Last year there were 270 complaints lodged about bad behavior on Main Street. The majority, were calls about intoxication, loitering and pan handling,” said McLaren.

He said cleaning up this issue is a focus of the detachment this year.

McLaren said the issue is also a personal one, as he and other officers want the hamlet safer for their wives and children to walk to the corner store. Business owners are complaining because customers are threatening to take their business elsewhere and staff doesn’t feel safe coming or going to work.

“It is not like council, where an issue is just brought up for discussion. As an owner and resident in Gleichen, we deal with this every day. Suppliers don’t come. Employees are afraid to walk home. We can’t get employees and people won’t shop,” said Vira in an emotional plea.

“Council needs to provide the minor rules to deal with it. It has been an ongoing problem over 10 years. I think as a business taxpayer that there should be some protection for us. We go out and clean Main Street. How many times a day do we have to go out and deal with this? We feel we are being neglected. Every department is on the same page. Now is the time to deal with it. That challenge is yours. We need your help and protection.” 

RCMP challenged council to sign up for a ride-along and see the problem first hand.

Currently the RCMP has used the Criminal Code to remove the troublemakers off the street. 

“It’s a heavy hammer to hit someone with a criminal offence for this and the courts frown on it. We lose credibility because it doesn’t meet the courts perception of severity and they keep throwing it out,” said McLaren.

He said places like Picture Butte and Waterton have developed bylaws to deal with similar issues. He intends to have officers foot patrol the street during the day, if manpower allows. He thinks if a bylaw is in place the officers can keep the traffic moving and that will cut down on infractions. A liquor store was closed down and that helped with some issues; however, it did not remove the problem.

Councillors wondered if Criminal Code charges were not helping, how a simple bylaw would address the problem. Council questioned why courts won’t incarcerate the offenders.

“Repeat bylaw infractions hold more emphasis with the courts. What happens in the court is out of our hands and not a lot of people are held in jail for offences like this. Courts like to see we are achieving our job with as little force as possible. Legally it is not really a criminal offence. If a bylaw was in place, it gives us the authority to deal with those minor behaviors.  It would plug the lower end that the Criminal Code doesn’t address prior to it becoming a criminal matter,” said Staff Sgt. McLaren.

CAO Jennifer Deak asked how imposing a ticket or monetary penalty would be a deterrent.

“It gives us a tool to arrest and remove them from the area. Enforcement doesn’t always have to end in a charge. It gives us the power to talk to person and engage in certain behaviors. It gives the power under the provincial procedures act. If we have to lay a charge, we have the authority to lay it,” said McLaren.

Bylaw officer Sgt. Jeff Cyr added that if it was a bylaw, County officers could also help with enforcement.

“We hire them to protect our people. Other jurisdictions have these tools. It can be effective or misused. We supply tools for roads, why can we not provide this bylaw to be used as a tool for our officers,” said Reeve Glenn Koester. “We are just responding with due diligence on behalf of the ratepayers.”

“We spend less time putting in a bylaw for messy yards than we are doing for protecting people,” said Councillor Ben Armstrong.

Councillor Brenda Knight said a bylaw is not going to hurt but it is not going to change things. 

There was a suggestion to ban alcohol and make Gleichen a dry town. However, for council to do that, all towns and hamlets in the County would have to be alcohol free, or it would be discriminatory. 

The RCMP and Siksika Council had relationship building meetings to address activity in the Happy Valley area. It was suggested that leadership from the Nation was needed to solve the problem as well. 

“They are aware and they are willing to speak out,” said McLaren.

“We have tried to solve this co-operative with the Nation. They suggested that the bylaws be put in place. It is a real detriment to that community. I would like to assist the RCMP with these bylaws,” said Councillor Ken Sauve.

Councillor Alice Booth said that moving the people just moves the problems somewhere else. She suggested that the problem was systemic and a greater social outreach would be needed to eliminate the root cause of the problem.

Councillor Ken Sauve said that in meetings with Siksika council, they were trying to get a treatment centre.