City Council to advocate for more Conservation Officers

Prince George City Council will be advocating for more Conservation Officers for the city.

At last night’s (Monday) meeting, Conservation Officer Sgt. Eamon McArthur presented to Prince George City Council alongside PG RCMP Superintendent Shaun Wright and Inspector Darin Rappel.

He spoke on last year’s bear season, saying they couldn’t have predicted the amount of calls they received.

“I’ve gone from a series of maybe 300 calls in August or September,” he said.

“For example, for some hard numbers, in August of 2022, there were approximately 145 calls for service in the Prince George area. I don’t have the exact number off the top of my head for 2023, but it was somewhere upwards of over 2,000 calls for service.”

McArthur said there may be a number of factors involved, such as weather, food sources, and droughts, but attractants are the only factor they can “sink their teeth into”.

McArthur said he can’t say what this year is going to be like, but it’s looking towards being another bad year.

“It did build up from when I started this career to last year, but last year was quite a jump from what we were used to versus what we got,” he said.

“We don’t know what it’s going to look like this year at this point in time, and we’re hoping that maybe it will start to peter out.”

McArthur also noted their Prince George district spans from Kluskus Lake to just below McLeod Lake, Cinema and to the Homes River east of McBride.

He added they will be fully staffed in September, but that only gives them five officers.

“I could always use more, four field officers and a supervisor is what the bigger cities get,” McArthur said.

“If we had double that, it would be ideal, but I’m not sure where the province is sitting on it.”

Councillor Ron Polillo moved City Council refer to Council’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs for advocacy work to bring more Conservation Officer staff.

That was passed unanimously by Council.