At the most recent regular Rocanville town council meeting, the council made the decision to support the City of Cold Lake’s resolution to the federal government’s firearm ban.
Mayor of Cold Lake Craig Copeland sent a letter to municipalities throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair, Attorney General David Lametti, Leader of the Official Opposition Andrew Scheer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and others.
The letter from the City of Cold Lake asks all municipalities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to voice their concerns with the firearm ban the Government of Canada has implemented.
The following resolution was passed by the City of Cold Lake on June 23:
“That council lobby the federal government to revoke the amendments to the criminal code on May 1, 2020 under an ‘Order in Council’ titled and referred to as ‘Regulations Amending the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Amunition and Projectiles as Prohibited, Restricted or Non-Restricted: SOR/2020-96.’
“The City of Cold Lake supports initiatives to end violence; however, feels very strongly that the Government of Canada is wasting valuable resources and taking the wrong approach to gun control that will have zero effect on gun crime.”
The City of Cold Lake’s recommendations to the Government of Canada:
Target crime, and focus on enforcement through enhanced enforcement capacity for law enforcement and border services, as well as harsher punishments for firearms trafficking and crimes involving firearms. The current ban targets law-abiding owners, rather than the holders of illicit firearms, and would not greatly impact crime reduction.
Collect and share relevant data on crime involving firearms through improved collection and sharing of data on crimes involving firearms, particularly in terms of sources of illicit firearms, and the types of crime being committed. This data is critical for supporting law enforcement and border agencies efforts, as well as informing policy and legislation
Collaborate with the firearms community and industry to support communication, training and public education regarding firearms to create a multi-faceted approach rather than implementing a ban in isolation.
“The city feels that the federal government’s gun ban will be an expensive exercise that will only serve to take law abiding people’s property, while doing nothing to reduce crime,” Copeland wrote in the letter.
“Municipalities are the level of government closest to the people, and a large part of our budget and operations is focused on providing safe and healthy communities. We see forecasts of hundreds of millions of federal dollars to be spent to buy guns back from people. As these are people who went through the necessary education, background checks, and licensing to purchase them, it seems to be a poorly thought out plan, especially if its aim is to reduce crime.”
The council was in agreement that it’s important to show support to the City of Cold Lake and Copeland on such a hot button topic.
“The firearm ban is too far,” said Councillor Stan Langley. “We need to support this resolution.”
The main reason the council found it important to show their support with this firearm resolution was because they don’t see the logic in punishing legal firearm owners that follow the rules of possessing a firearm when they believe the federal government’s focus should be on ridding Canada of illegal firearms.
“The government’s resources would be better put towards stopping illegal firearms than taking away the legal gun carrier’s rights,” said Mayor Daryl Fingas.
“We’re supporting the resolution,” said Administrator Monica Pethick. “We’re all agreeing that this gun ban can’t go through because it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Grey water line
Goodman Steel put in a request to the Town of Rocanville to install a grey water line, and the council passed a motion to allow them to do so.
Goodman Steel is planning to put in a grey water line under Highway 8 with the permission of the Ministry of Highways.
The Town of Rocanville uses Rhino Dirt Works for this type of work and Goodman Steel plans to do the same.
“They’ll probably use the same contractor we use,” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
“We don’t just let anybody hook into our sewer system because they can do a lot of damage. Rhino has been working in this area for a little while now and they know where the lines are and have an understanding of this stuff here. They can use who they like to do the digging, but the actual connection will be our preferred contractor.”
“Currently they have a sewer, but a pump out system,” said Pethick.
“They’ve got to take it away with a tank. They could reduce the cost by getting rid of the grey water and then just remove the solids once or twice a year. It will reduce their cost tremendously. That’s why they want to hook into our system.”
Disinfectant fogger
With the need for cleaning more important than ever with the Covid-19 pandemic, Rocanville Rec Director Andrea Logan requested the town purchase a cleaning fogger.
The council passed a motion to allow for the rec department to purchase a fogger with the price of the fogger expected to be in the $1,000 price range.
A cleaning fogger allows for more thorough cleaning of areas and can account for places that are harder to reach or unreachable with normal cleaning.
“It’s a fogging system,” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
“The problem here is if in the fall we have something (with Covid-19) it will take a lot of thorough cleaning. But Andrea (Logan) has been watching rec webinars and if you buy one of these foggers you can set it up and it’ll fog everything over night or over a period of time and you can clean large areas very quickly. They run about $1,000.”
The council passed a motion to allow for the purchase, but they plan on doing more research on the fogger with Logan before making a purchase. As long as the fogger is around the $1,000 mark (at most) the council is allowing Logan to make the purchase, and if the price is above that then the council will re-visit the topic and have to give further approval.
“Even if we had a function (post-Covid-19) where a lot of people went down with something like the flu, it might pay to have that option to sterilize the building,” said Pethick.
Fire services to Village of Tantallon
The council gave a first reading to a bylaw that will provide Rocanville’s fire services to the Village of Tantallon.
“Since Tantallon is on the border (of Rocanville and Spy Hill) they can ask the province to do a preferential 9-1-1 response area,” said Administrator Monica Pethick. “Which means they can ask the province that when they put a 9-1-1 call on Spy Hill’s side, they will automatically request Rocanville’s fire department because that’s who their preferred fire service provider is. The province has agreed that this will come into effect in September.”
