The Environment Ministry is going full steam ahead in the procurement of 147 new high-powered firearms for conservation officers despite concerns from First Nations and contractors.
The original request for proposals was October 24. Since then, four contract amendments have been issued for various weapons specifications and a proposal submission deadline extension from November 8 to the 15.
As of today, contractors questioned the delivery of the first 15 firearms wanting that deadline moved from December 31 to Jan 15, yet the government turned down that request.
“This is in order to be able to train our training staff, so that we can deploy rifles in a timely fashion next year when the acquisition of the bulk of the rifles happens next year,” said Kevin Murphy, Assistant Deputy Minister, Resource Management and Compliance Division.
Murphy says the remaining 132 rifles are expected to come before the end of April.
Murphy maintains that the new firearms are needed for safety; citing a court decision in relation to the deaths of four Mounties in Moncton, New Brunswick at the hands of Justin Bourque in 2014. That ruling says the RCMP failed to properly equip the officers.
In fact, environment officials say officers have never discharged a weapon in an incident that involves the public.
First Nations are opposed to the idea, fearful the added firepower could lead to more First Nations deaths.
“We may have a tragedy in the future and this provincial government, conservation officers, will be held liable,” stated FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron. “Is it a licence to kill? We don’t know. We certainly hope not.”
“First of all, there has been no evidence that conservation officers require military style weapons,” said Vice-Chief Heather Bear. “We are not aware of a single case of a conservation officer being killed or injured or even fired at.”
The FSIN is also upset the government did not consult the organization on the decision. Murphy says the Ministry will “engage” First Nations about the roll-out of the rifles, but gathering their opinions is not expected. “I think we’re going to be indicating what the roll-out is going to be like, what the expectations are for the deployment. I don’t have an expectation that we’ll be gathering opinions.”
(Files from Fraser Needham.)
(PHOTO: Conservation Officer recruit target practicing. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski)