Alberta park rangers issuing on-the-spot tickets starting May 31
Posted May 14, 2018 2:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Not taking out the trash or failing to put out a campfire in Alberta parks is going to cost you, and starting at the end of the month you could be handed an on-the-spot ticket from a park ranger.
The province has 38 new or increased specified penalties for those who break the rules on public land. They include dumping garbage and driving through waterways.
“It was time to be firm and fair and bring in things like administrative penalties, there needs to an immediate consequence to undesirable actions,” said Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips. “And it is not necessarily the case that these things need to clog up the court system.”
She said recreation groups, municipalities and others have said these penalties provide a quicker enforcement tool. Phillips said rangers would rather keep their feet in the parks and not in the province’s courtrooms.
“They would far prefer to have that on-the-spot option open to them as an enforcement action if they wanted to escalate up from a warning, rather than a court summons,” she said.
According to the government, more than 300 provincial enforcement officers will be patrolling public land, parks and protected areas this spring in summer. That includes 20 seasonal park rangers and eight seasonal positions to assist fish and wildlife officers.
Last year, provincial officers issued 6,595 charges and warnings for offences on public land.
