Lac La Biche County Council imposes hiring freeze on Peace Officer program

Lac La Biche County’ s Peace Officer program already faces a staffing shortage-and there won’ t be any new Peace Officers for some time.

Last Tuesday, County Council voted to subject the program to a hiring freeze, which will last until councillors have had the opportunity to review the program. Councillor Dave Phillips opposed the motion.

The program, which has operated in this municipality for six years, has already been suspended due to a lack of available personnel. Interim chief administrative officer Shadia Amblie told the POST that two Peace Officers have left the organization and two others are on short-term leaves of absence.

The POST later learned that one of the departing Peace Officers has accepted a position in a different municipality. Not long after, Albert Bahri, the County’ s manager of protective services who oversees the Peace Officer program, also found a new job and offered his resignation.

Council had identified the Peace Officer program as needing a review during its budget deliberations, which ultimately saw the program’ s operational budget reduced by more than $150,000 after councillors asked departmental managers to find efficiencies.

Acting Mayor John Nowak raised the topic of a hiring freeze during Council’ s regular meeting last Tuesday, saying the program has already been sidelined anyway.

“If we are going to make any changes, then now would be the best time,” Nowak said.

Councillor Rick Olson agreed that a review of the program should be conducted, and Council later voted to impose the hiring freeze.

In the meantime, Amblie says, members of the public should not be concerned, as the local RCMP is still handling law enforcement in the County.

“We are confident that local RCMP officers will continue to serve the community in their usual capacity during this interim period,” she said.

The Ministry of Justice and the Solicitor General, which oversees all Peace Officer programs in Alberta, has been contacted and has not expressed concern, she says.