OLDS — Town council has added the impending dissolution of the Chinook Arch Victims Services Society (CEVSS) to its list of “advocacy priorities.”
Society chair Miranda Dulmage and Rhonda Kerns, the organization’s executive director made a presentation to council last month concerning its demise.
CEVSS has been in existence for about 25 years and works with Olds, Didsbury and Sundre RCMP detachments, providing support for people who are the victims of crime or tragedy.
That can involve everything from helping victims navigate the court system to consoling and finding shelter for people who are homeless, due to situations like fires or domestic abuse.
Dulmage and Brent Williams, the town’s chief administrative officer, told council that for the past couple of years, there’s been word from the province of its plans to replace the current 62 victim services organizations with four district ones.
However, Dulmage said those boards won’t do all that CEVSS does. She said those districts will only help victims of crime navigate through the criminal justice system.
“The very first response aspect of victim services will be disappearing and we've had no guidance on how that is supposed to be brought forward,” Dulmage said.
Williams said town officials have held back from commenting officially on this because it’s been unclear how exactly this will unfold. Many questions to provincial officials have remained unanswered.
Both Alberta Municipalities, which represents urban municipalities, and Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) have come out against the idea, he said.
Dulmage too said CEVSS, like other victim services organizations, has been mute until now because speaking out could result in a loss of provincial funding.
She said that’s what happened to some victim services branches that did speak out.
Also, there was concern that speaking out could hurt opportunities for CEVSS staff to obtain jobs in the new organizations, which they have to apply for.
Innisfail & District Victim Services, which had been in existence since 1996, was expected to shut down this month as a result of the government’s decision.
Williams alluded to that.
“You can see victim services now -- even in our area, let alone across the province -- deteriorating or dissolving because of this lack of direction, Innisfail being the most recent example, but not the only one,” he said.
“It's hard for me to understate the importance victim services has in our first responder community in Olds, largely with the RCMP, but also with Olds Fire Department.
“Those employees and volunteers who are again, second on scene to a lot of very difficult circumstances, supporting those people affected not just by crime, but by tragedy as well.
“And it's something that first responders are not trained to deal with, but certainly don't have the time in such situations to deal with.
“It's an incredibly important service that we don't want to see diluted, let alone disrupted.
“I’m not saying the province is going to harm the current model or it's going to do anything on purpose that's against victims of crime or tragedy. But their inaction and the lack of clarity is doing just that, I would argue.
“And I believe council needs to hear this now and consider formal stance from the Town of Olds."
Dulmage said all funding from the solicitor general will only be funnelled to the four new entities, not the 62 victim services organizations.
For the past 10 years or so, like other victim services organizations, CEVSS has helped console people – especially children – affected by crime, violence or tragedy with the help of service dog Carter.
“There is no word, and in fact, a very negative word from the province in how they're going to handle these victim support dogs. There is no support being given, no funding being given,” Dulmage said.
“In fact, they have informed those of us that have dogs to approach other ministries for funding, because they will not be funding this,” she added.
Dulmage stressed she was speaking as a representative of the board, not as representative of program staff, because she said “they are not allowed to put forward their own personal opinions on this right now, because they are still waiting to be rehired into the new positions under the new program."
Coun. James Cummings said he’s been involved with other societies before and he couldn’t understand how “(The solicitor general) can dictate to you in any way whatsoever how you fundraise, operate your society outside of the purview of the use of their funding.”
“So basically, we would have to create a secondary parallel society to maintain those functions outside of what is being done by these regional boards,” she said.
Until now, victim services groups have partnered/been associated with police detachments. Dulmage said it’s unclear if that will continue.
Olds RCMP commanding officer Staff Sgt. Warren Wright said, they will not be allowed to do so.
Cummings said the solicitor general doesn’t own the Olds RCMP detachment; the town does and thus has control over what happens there.
Williams said the town does own the detachment building, but town staff and officials have no security clearance.
“The contract very much dictates who has access to that building,” he said.
“That's correct,” Wright said.
He said CAVSS will be replaced by the new provincial entity and Olds will likely fall under the southern district.
He said any RCMP referrals will have to go to that new entity, not CAVSS.
“So unfortunately, Chinook’s Arch is -- becoming obsolete,” he said.
Coun. Darren Wilson called the decision to eliminate CAVSS in favour of the four new entities “short-sighted.”
Deputy mayor Heather Ryan agreed.
“This is astounding to me. I just don't understand the thinking in going this route,” she said.
“This is obviously something that is well used and needed. In fact, I used victim services a long time ago when I when I needed it. So I know there’s a need there.”
Coun. Wanda Blatz agreed.
“Having personally used Chinook Arch Victims Services on more than one occasion due to tragedy, I know how important your function is within our community,” she said.
“It's a very necessary tool that we need to have and available to all walks of life and not dictated by perhaps a government entity to tell us what to do from down here.”
Blatz called on council to “support advocacy” for the CAVSS and contact surrounding communities to obtain support from them for the cause.
Coun. Dan Daley said the issue came up during an RMA conference he attended.
Daley said that in response, the public safety minister gave “a very well-spoken, quite assertive talk that he was going to look into the victim services and he was not going to let it wither on the vine.”
Nonetheless, he supported the advocacy idea.
“I couldn't imagine if this service was not available to our citizens, the impact that it would have,” he said.
Mayor Judy Dahl said not only has the topic been brought up at the RMA and Alberta Municipalities, it will almost certainly be brought up in the Mid-sized Towns Mayor's Caucus.
She said the mayors of Sundre and Didsbury have also indicated they’re concerned about the change as well.
“I'm very proud of you for taking a stand and bringing it to our council,” Dahl said.
