The BC NDP don’t want to confront the reality that their environment minister Hon. George Heyman has full control of the BC Conservation Officer Service (BC COS).
As it is laid out in s. 106 of the Environmental Management Act, the service is “under the direction of the minister.” His colleague, the public safety minister and Solicitor General does not have that extraordinary power over other constables working in municipal police services.
The environment minister is maintaining a situation that is unsafe for the members of the BC COS, their policing partners, the public, and nature.
As the minister of public safety told me this week, all the environment minister needs to do is ask for the BC COS to be officially designated as a police or law enforcement service under the Police Act.
Why is this BC NDP government so reluctant to ensure the BC COS has independence in their investigations and proper arms-length oversight? Not some made up alternative process as this environment minister is apt to do, but rather the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, that is mandated to provide oversight of all other constables with unlimited appointments.
I imagine the BC NDP don’t want their environmental record to be freely investigated. What is the minister hiding? Why won’t he require the BC COS to meet the basic expectation of British Columbians for independence and oversight?
[Transcript]
A. Olsen:
Today I ask my question on behalf of nature and more than 600 bears and their orphan cubs.
The B.C. conservation officer service is essentially the Environment Minister’s own little army. It’s a heavily armed service of special provincial constables with unlimited appointments, no constabulary independence, no arms-length oversight.
Unlike other constables, under section 106 of the Environmental Management Act, the B.C. conservation officer service is “under the direction of that minister.”
As I learned from the Environment Minister’s colleague this week, the only way for the conservation service to have basic independence, the basic independence and arms-length oversight that British Columbians expect from people with those unlimited appointments, is for the Environment Minister to ask. So in my response today, will he turn to his colleague and ask that the B.C. conservation service be designated a police or law enforcement service effective immediately?
Hon. G. Heyman:
Thank you to the member for the question, notwithstanding the fact that characterizing the women and men who work in the conservation officer service, protecting communities, valued by communities, protecting wildlife and generally ensuring that activities around the interface between humans and animals, and the safety of animals and nature against poachers and others, are dedicated…. They’re the furthest thing possible from a private army directed by a minister.
There is a chain of command in the conservation officer service.
Interjection.
The Speaker: Member.
Hon. G. Heyman:
The Solicitor General and I have had many conversations around the appropriate oversight and facing different bodies into the Police Act since a decision of the courts affirmed that the conservation officer service were, in fact, in certain circumstances, a special constabulary.
What I will tell you is that the conservation officer service supports the implementation of third-party oversight as a tool to enhance transparency and public trust. We are working on that.
[11:00 a.m.]
We currently also have measures in place that provide for oversight and response to complaints. We have a new position, the inspector of provincial standards, to monitor and provide oversight of complaints. We are working with other bodies. We developing a response to the public that wants to see oversight.
Draft Segment 013
place that provide for oversight and response to complaints. We have a new position, the Inspector of Provincial Standards, to monitor and provide oversight on complaints. We are working with other bodies.
The Speaker: Thank you.
Hon. G. Heyman:
We are developing a response to the public that wants to see oversight.
The member can shake his head, as he often does when I provide factual answers, but they are the facts.
The Speaker: Thank you. The member has supplemental.
A. Olsen: The minister knows where the chain of command ends, and it’s at his feet. That’s where the chain of command ends. It’s unique for people with these unlimited appointments to be under the direction of a minister. In fact, all we need to do is go back to the bill debate this week for the Minister of Public Safety to admit that he doesn’t have the same powers over people with these unlimited appointments as the Minister Of Environment does.
So I am shaking my head, for good reason, because the people that he characterised, good people, in the B.C. conservation service, don’t have the basic level of safety and security that their colleagues who are working for municipal police services have. We expect that. That’s the confidence that we can have in our police services when we give them these powers.
That’s the expectation that the people that they work alongside with — the RCMP officers, the municipal police services — expect that the people working alongside them have the same oversight. That doesn’t exist in this province, and it was a basic admission from the Minister of Public Safety earlier this week.
I wonder why it is that the Minister of Environment wouldn’t want the people who investigate crimes against nature to have independence in those investigations. When was the last time that we saw, in this province, an environmental investigation lead to charges of any level of seriousness? I wonder why that’s the case.
Anyway, we can’t sell that we’ve got this exceptional framework in this province…
The Speaker: Question, member.
A. Olsen:
…gloating that we have world-class resource extraction standards. If our nature cops are the enforcement puppets of the cabinet minister…
The Speaker: Question, member.
A. Olsen:
My question, to the Minister of Environment, will he turn to his colleagues, the Minister of Public Safety, and ask him today, right now, in front of the people of British Columbia, to designate the B.C. conservation officer service as a police or law enforcement service effective immediately?
Hon. G. Heyman:
It is sad that the member opposite, the House Leader for the Third Party, simply can’t hear or comprehend the answers that are given.
Interjections.
The Speaker: Members, we are wasting time in question period. Please.
Minister will conclude.
Hon. G. Heyman:
I have never said I don’t support independent oversight. In fact, I do.
Interjection.
The Speaker: Member. Member.
Hon. G. Heyman:
In fact, the conservation officer service has adopted the practice of hiring an external lawyer to conduct investigations into any alleged serious misconduct complaints. We will continue to look at new measures and are currently looking at new measures to ensure that the public can have trust that their complaints are handled independently, with integrity and transparently.
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