Press Feature – CFWF

PF-Bronze-Tamara Leigh

Awards Coordinator — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:14:40 +0000

Tamara Leigh won bronze for the Dick Beamish Award for her article, “Welcome Back”, published in GrainsWest.

PF- Silver- Judie Steeves

Awards Coordinator — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:11:58 +0000

Judie Steeves won silver for the Dick Beamish Award for her article, “Ranchers collaborate to preserve grasslands”, published in Country Life in BC.

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PF-Gold-Lorne McClinton

Awards Coordinator — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:07:49 +0000

Lorne McClinton won gold for the Dick Beamish Award for his article, “A Higher Purpose”, published in The Furrow.

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PF- BRONZE: Alice Guthrie

Zoe Aikman — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:15:29 +0000

Alice Guthrie won bronze for the Dick Beamish award for her article, From a voice, buffalo. To view the full article, please visit Small Farm Reader.

A calling to raise buffalo

A young bull challenges the dominant bull, Ace, to a pushing contest. He didn’t win. Ace stands over seven feet at the shoulder.

“Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.”

— “My Western Home”, Dr. Brewster M. Higley, 1872

Not too many deer, and no antelope at all inhabit Mike Water’s world, but a number of shaggy buffalo do roam the fields of the farm he calls home. It is a peaceful spot and if you met Mike today, you would think that he had grown up in such a peaceful atmosphere.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Early years

Mike’s early years were difficult. Abandoned by his mom and step dad at age seven, and separated from his siblings by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), Mike endured many hardships in foster care, including abuse at the hands of a sadistic sexual predator at a boys’ ranch near Copetown, Ontario. He was not believed when he reported it. Mike was so angry at life that he came to the point where, at age 13, a psychiatrist warned him he could become a serial killer.

Mike didn’t go down that road though. “God had a different plan for me,” he says. At 13, his mom took him back home, but that didn’t last; he and his mom couldn’t get along, and within a few months Mike was on the streets of Hamilton, Ontario, running with the Sherman Street Gang and associating with biker gangs. He turned to drugs and alcohol. He was often suicidal, from age 11 to 23, but was stopped by a still small voice on the inside. And, there was a dream . . . Mike wanted to farm.

At 19 he married — this went sour in about a year. Following separation, he went west but returned a year later. After a divorce, there were more drugs and more alcohol; life was falling apart. He was trying to find peace, running from his past but feeling that it was overtaking and destroying him. “Victims of child abuse have a tsunami wave of emotion chasing them all the time,” he says.

Mike headed west again at age 23, traveling with another biker, but felt an inner voice from God telling him to turn around. He fought it for 800 miles, then began to reason with this voice in his head. Eventually he turned back. A tire on his bike blew near Thunder Bay, and he almost slid under a truck. Leaving the damaged bike in the ditch, he hopped a plane back home, experiencing a peace and joy he didn’t understand. Shortly thereafter, he walked into a gospel service in a church basement, wearing his biker leathers, a full beard and long flowing hair. Six guys prayed with him there. Mike was broken and wept, but he was a changed man. “I never turned back,” he says.

In the years following Mike held many jobs, but only for short times. “Couldn’t keep a job because of childhood traumas . . . you become very dysfunctional in life,” he says. He married again and the couple started a family. One day at work, at age 27, he felt God speak to his heart, calling him to raise buffalo. When he shared this with his wife, she laughed, but the more Mike looked into it, the more excited he got. He hadn’t even realized buffalo could be farmed. Although his wife was sick of hearing about them within a few days, Mike continued to investigate possibilities. He found a guy who was raising buffalo, and a farm near Brantford where he could begin his venture with five bison, and a neighbouring farmer who helped him learn to farm, as he had no previous farming experience.

These days, Mike’s farm near Hagersville, is not the best cropland, as it sits close to the rock and

Inside the working chute. Mike stands by the sorting gate. Animals can be sent right or left or ahead into the squeeze chute.

has extensive brush cover. But this is an advantage to Mike, as the brush provides cover for the bison herd in winter. Their extensive shaggy coat gives them perfect protection from winter temperatures and the brush breaks the wind.

Living with buffalo

Although now kept on farms, buffalo, or bison, should not be considered to be domesticated. They are still a wild animal, Mike explains. “If the tail is up and the animal is pawing, you are in trouble,” he says, adding, “You have to have a passion for them.”

Mike culls individuals that are overly aggressive. He has sustained a few injuries over the years, but has been fortunate to avoid serious ones. Once several bison escaped their fence and one was hit by a truck. Suffering a broken leg, and enraged with pain, this 2200 pound bull chased Mike. It was after dark, he couldn’t really see where he was going and ran into an apple tree, knocking himself out cold. Luckily, the buffalo continued on. Mike landed in hospital, and almost lost an eye from a branch on the tree. Another injury occurred when a hand-raised cow pinned him in a corner between her horns. When she pulled back and twisted her head, Mike suffered a two-inch gash in his side from her horn. Bottle fed animals are the most dangerous, Mike claims, “They’re unpredictable.”

Set-up costs to keep buffalo are high; you need at least six foot, heavy duty fences and a minimum of one acre per buffalo. The corral system needs to be very strong to handle these animals, and you need a 2 ½ ton squeeze chute. Running chutes cannot be longer than ten feet, as once running, these animals are capable of crashing through wood or even concrete walls, and have been known to snap hydro poles.

Trailering plans are needed to avoid standing still, as they are capable of demolishing a trailer if left standing. The animals are able to jump 10 feet from a standstill, and can go over a 12 foot wall. They are able to run 30 mph (50 kmph) for short distances. Mike estimates fencing costs for 80 acres to be approximately $60,000, with handling facilities costing another $15,000 to $20,000.

Breeding stock is also expensive. A six month old calf (bull or heifer) will set you back $2500 to $5000, depending on which part of the country you live in. Mike emphasized that the key to starting a new herd is to buy young stock, as they will adapt to new conditions more easily than mature stock.

Bison are herbivores, eating up to 60 pounds/27 kg of forage per day. Mike’s herd eats mainly grass and hay, with salt and mineral licks provided. He utilizes sweet corn husks and stalks that he obtains at low cost from a farmer nearby. Feed costs run about $2000 per animal per year. Mike uses pour-on Ivomec spring and fall to control parasites. There is rarely any other vetting required.

A mature bull stands about seven feet at the shoulder and weighs up to 1360 kg. (3000 pounds). Cows are significantly smaller, weighing about 771 kg. (1700 pounds). Calves, which arrive in May and June, weigh about 70 to 100 pounds at birth, and are called, “red dogs,” due to the light red colouring of young babies. They gradually change colour to the dark brown of the adult animal over the first few months. Bison can live up to 30 years.

The animals are alert and suspicious of dogs or coyotes, and very protective of their calves, so predators are rarely an issue. Bison can be pastured and kept with cattle, but grown stock will kill horses.

Buffalo are usually slaughtered at about two and a half years, bringing a final income of as much as $7000. Hides are sold for $750 to $1,000 (tanning cost about $250), a stuffed head $3000 to $4000 (mounting costs about $2000). Meat sells at $10 to $30 per pound, depending on the cut. Butcher costs run $400 to $650 per animal. Buffalo dress out at 500 to 700 pounds.

Mike has assisted several other people in getting established with bison. He regularly attends community events to educate people on the benefits of bison, and visits schools, taking along a life-sized stuffed buffalo, artifacts, skulls, hides and information on how the buffalo were used by the First Peoples of North America. Kids love to be able to touch and feel the items he takes. He maintains a small on-farm store, where customers can purchase buffalo meat, hides, heads or skulls. Visitors have come from many areas.

Christine Goldsmith visited from England a couple of years back. She recalls, “It was a totally amazing visit. Mike was so knowledgeable about his stock and the shop very interesting, even took some buffalo meat home to try. One of the best tasting meats I have had.”

Mike built his bison herd up to 70 head but 25 years later, has downsized to 45. He enjoys his family — five kids, and now seven grandkids. He has an easy laugh and is laid back, but delights in pranking people. He has a generous spirit, genuinely caring for his neighbours and friends. Thanks in part to buffalo, Mike is finally a peaceful man.

Bison history Bison are North America’s largest land animal, and estimates suggest up to 60 million of them roamed the continent in 1800. The bison provided the aboriginal people of North America with food, shelter, tools and fuel. During the 1800’s, habitat loss from settlers and hide hunters reduced numbers drastically, so that by 1889 less than 1000 were left. Efforts by ranchers and conservationists prevented the total loss of the species, as small herds were kept privately or in national parks. Buffalo farming began in earnest in the 1980’s and 90’s, as the public discovered this heritage food. There are now almost 145,000 bison in Canada, with about 400,000 across North America.

Check the Canadian Bison Association website for further information: https://www.canadianbison.ca

— Allice Guthrie

PF—SILVER: Robin Booker

Zoe Aikman — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:11:52 +0000

Robin Booker won silver for the Dick Beamish Award for his article, Faking It. To view the full article, please visit The Western Producer.

Faking it – the great honey robbery

The surge of counterfeit honey into global honey supplies has been devastating for Canadian beekeepers. | WP graphic

The great honey robbery | Canadian producers are forced to react as the burgeoning trade in counterfeit honey threatens to upend their industry. | BY ROBIN BOOKER

ROBLIN, Man. — The surge of counterfeit honey into global honey supplies has been devastating for Canadian beekeepers.

“It’s been twisting my hand because I can’t stay here,” said Tim Wendell of Wendell Honey.

“I don’t know if the price is coming back or how long it’s going to take. It always has come back, but is it even going to happen this time because no one seems to care.”

Wendell has been in the business a long time. He and his wife, Isabel, officially took over the hives from his father in 1974, but bees have always been part of his life.

“I used to go to school with both eyes swollen shut from being stung in the eyes,” he said.

“That’s the best defensive move for a bee, is to take out the eyes.”

Wendell’s father, John, was fascinated by bees and started the business in the 1930s after catching a few hives in the late 1920s.

Wendell Honey, which is based out of MacNutt, Sask., has experienced good years and struggled through times when the price of honey dropped or when a treatment was ineffective against an ever-changing mite population that caused a spike in bee mortality.

Recently, from 2010-12, the price for a pound of honey surged to more than $2 in Canada, and honey producers enjoyed healthy profits.

But the boon was short lived as fraudulent honey flowed into world honey markets.

The extra volume of “honey” on the world market quickly weighed on prices, which fell to as low as $1.10 per lb., well below the cost of production for Canadian producers.

Today bulk honey returns are showing some strength and it is possible for honey producers to reap a small profit. However, the problem of fraudulent honey persists, and how long the price will stay at this level is anyone’s guess.

“(Adulterated honey is) a worldwide problem. What it has done is it’s basically downgraded the price of Canadian honey, of basically all honeys,” said Rod Scarlett, executive director of the Canadian Honey Council.

“They will take honey and they will add corn syrup, rice syrup, or another sweetener to add more bulk. They will sell it as honey, and the corn syrup and rice syrup is very cheap. So they adulterate the product to get more product to sell at a higher price.”

Honey consistently ranks among the top adulterated agricultural products, and a study published this October in Nature, titled Authenticity and Geographic Origin of Global Honeys Determined Using Carbon Isotope Ratios and Trace Elements, set out to test world honey supplies.

It confirmed the practice of adulterating honey is common and widespread.

“We found that 52 percent of Asian honey samples tested were adulterated (11 of 21 samples), of which three were from China (3/7), one from South Korea (1/1), one from India (1/2), two from Indonesia (2/2) and four from Iran (4/4),” the study said in its discussion section.

“Six honey samples from Europe, from a total of 21 tested, contained added sugar. These honeys originated from Macedonia (2/3), Romania (1/2), Serbia (1/1), Greece (1/5) and Hungary (1/3). Australia has a lower adulteration rate (18.4 percent in total), with honey from its mainland having an adulteration rate of 17.2 percent (5/29) compared to 22.2 percent of samples from Tasmania (2/9). Both New Zealand manuka honey samples tested (2/2) weren’t adulterated.”

Canadian honey is considered among the safest in the world, largely because the industry has to follow strict rules set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. However, this reality doesn’t seem to matter to American processors, which treat Canadian honey the same as honey from areas where adulteration is a known problem.

The U.S. is the world’s top consumer of honey, but there is a large price spread between what’s paid for honey produced in the U.S. and imported honey, partially because of concerns over adulterated honey.

“We receive at least a dollar less than American producers per pound, yet our biosecurity and food safety standards certainly exceed theirs, and everybody that exports to the U.S. can be examined by the USDA,” Scarlett said.

With the use of anti-dumping laws, the U.S. no longer imports honey from China, where much of the adulterated honey is suspected to originate.

However, Chinese honey still makes it into the U.S. through transshipments.

Canada produces much more honey than is consumed in the country, but imported adulterated honey has been found in Canadian stores.

“A few years ago we were able to take a product from Spain off the shelves. It was a Spanish adulterated honey,” Scarlett said.

“I know the CFIA is continuing to do testing on an ongoing basis.”

Before April 1, 2017, the CFIA tested between 64 and 100 samples of imported honey a year for the presence of foreign sugars and found three to nine samples that contained added sugar.

Starting in April 2017, the agency increased the amount of honey it tested and collected 186 samples of imported honey in 2017, 11 of which were found to be adulterated.

Thus far in 2018, the CFIA has tested 299 samples of imported honey, and 24 had foreign sugars.

The CFIA uses a technique known as stable isotope ratio analysis to look for C-4 sugars (sugars from cane or corn syrups) in the honey, but these are not the only sugars being added to adulterated honey.

“The CFIA is aware of reports indicating that sugars other than cane and corn syrups were being added to honey. As a result, the CFIA is investigating the potential to use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) profiling to identify other sugars which may be used to adulterate honey (e.g. C3 sugars from rice and beets),” the agency said in an email.

In 2017 Canadian honey production was worth approximately $188 million: $79 million of this was exported, while imports of honey into the country were worth $41million.

Scarlett said the value of imported honey is largely made up of high value organic honey and manuka honey from Australia and New Zealand.

“We do have honey coming in from countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam that have a history of transshipping, that is shipping adulterated honey that may have originated in another country and then shipping it again, but the amount of honey that we are receiving is infinitesimal compared to the amount of honey that we produce,” he said.

There are two major end uses of honey: pure honey sold on store shelves directly to consumers and the baking and processing market.

The adulterated honey is primarily sold in barrels to the processing market.

Packers in the U.S. seem content to purchase low-price honey regardless of where it comes from, which has Canadian producers competing with low-priced fraudulent honey for the large American packing market.

“The American packers are trying to drive the price down and are buying cheaper honeys from other countries where the honey being produced is not necessarily produced to the same degree of food safety and biosecurity as Canadian honey,” Scarlett said.

Wendell Honey is a good example of how Canadian honey producers are adapting to the times by changing their business model.

The volatility of the bulk honey price has always made Wendell uneasy because it made his business vulnerable, and there was little he could do about it.

In 2011, during the last price up-swing when there was a little extra money around, the company started to increase the amount of honey it bottled.

Wendell said the company started to develop its own brand and markets because the price it receives for packaged honey is much more stable than bulk sales, and they have more control over the packaged honey price.

When the company began to develop its own brand and market, it had to find a way to differentiate itself in a food market considered one of the world’s most fraudulent.

So the company focused on describing its honey as uniquely pure because of the processes it uses. Its website uses the slogan: “Naturally from the hive to the jar with zero processing. It’s pure Canadian honey from the prairies.”

“There is the standard dyce method of creaming honey, but we don’t use that,” he said.

“Everybody is doing that, but we don’t want to do that. We want to be different and we think we have a superior product because of it.

“The dyce method always uses other honey that gets mixed with it, and I think that takes a little bit away, although it’s still better than most of the stuff the big packers are doing out there.”

Wendell said the process they use moves the honey from the hive to jars as quickly as possible to maintain the flavour bouquet from the hive, without mixing it with other honey.

“We try not to filter our honey,” he said. “It’s really more of a straining process than a filtering process. We try to keep it as natural as we’re allowed by the regulations to still meet Canada No. 1 standards.”

Glass jars from Italy were chosen to package the honey to help showcase the product as high end.

Wendell said they focus on producing and marketing a premium product in countries, primarily in South East Asia, where it’s difficult to source safe and authentic food.

“Our biggest market to date has been China,” he said.

“I listened to some people at a conference I was at years ago who said China is a good market, they are interested in clean food because the people with money in China don’t want to buy food produced in China,” Wendell said.

He said they struggled to establish foreign markets in the beginning with some traders taking fewer packages than promised and trying to pay less than originally agreed.

“We packaged too much honey in the beginning and we ended up dumping a bunch of it because I thought it would sell better than it did,” Wendell said.

In 2013 the company made a pitch on the Dragon’s Den television show but decided not to take the deal that was offered.

However, Wendell said the exposure the company received from being on the show helped open doors that had previously been closed to it.

Eventually perseverance paid off and demand for the honey steadily increased.

“In 2015 we packaged 50 pallets, that’s about 2,000 lb. a pallet. We were sold out by the end of June that year, so we thought we better get geared up,” he said.

“I think that was 2016 — we did 100 pallets. We sold out those 100 pallets by the end of March.”

In 2017 the company again doubled the amount of honey it packaged and 200 pallets were wrapped up, which sold out by the end of February.

Wendell said the demand for honey in the company’s current markets is beginning to soften, so they are looking to develop other markets, including South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

To keep up to its changing business model, Wendell said the company continues to adjust.

Wendell Honey has brought in three long-term employees as well as Wendell’s son, Nathan, as shareholders.

Another company was formed called Wendell Estate Honey, which handles the bottling and marketing side of the business. It is managed by Tim, Isabel, their sons, Jeremy and Nathan, and Nathan’s wife, Carolyn Wendell.

During the fall the companies employ up to 55 people, who help bring in the hives and then extract and bottle the honey.

The Roblin Co-op grocery story recently moved into a new building, and Wendell Estate bought the old store and is now in the middle of renovating it.

Wendell said the facility will provide options for the business as it expands.

He said the honey industry has faced significant challenges before, such as in 1987 when beekeepers were no longer allowed to import queen bees from the U.S.

“There were a group of beekeepers from Nipawin, Sask., who were quite progressive in their thinking. They sold most Saskatchewan beekeepers on preparing your losses and your needs the season before by making small units that we call nucleus colonies,” Wendell said.

Establishing nucleus colonies created more work for beekeepers, but it helped them become more self-sufficient and productive in the long run.

“You can select for what works for you and your outfit, you can select the stock you want to breed from,” Wendell said.

“Your stock continually gets a little better and a little better because your stock works in your particular management system, because every beekeeper has a different management system.”

He said with the challenge of counterfeit honey undermining beekeepers’ profits, and in the absence of any sign the issue will be dealt with in the near future, it may be the case that packaging and branding clean Canadian honey is the way forward for the Canadian honey industry.

Similarly to how Canadian beekeepers became more resilient through sourcing queens from their own nucleus colonies, in the long run they may be better off once their businesses are less reliant on bulk honey prices set by an adulterated world supply, he added.

Canadian honey stats

In 2017:

There were a record 789,598 honey bee colonies in Canada.
10,544 Canadian beekeepers kept one or more honey bee colonies, up 19 percent from the five-year average.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba accounted for 68 percent of the country’s total bee colonies and for 86 percent of the total honey production.
Alberta bees produced the most honey with 43 percent of total production, followed by Saskatchewan (24 percent) and Manitoba (19 percent).
Ontario has the most beekeepers, with 3,331 beekeepers or 32 percent of national total. B.C. and Alberta come in second and third, with 2,640 and 1,360 beekeepers respectively.
Canada produced 92.1 million pounds of honey in 2017, down three percent from 2016. In 2015 the value of honey produced in Canada fell from $210 million to $169 million in 2016, but prices rebounded in 2017 by 14 percent to $188 million, despite a three percent reduction in total production.

Source: Agriculture Canada

PF- GOLD: Ian Doig

Zoe Aikman — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 23:55:35 +0000

Ian Doig won gold for the Dick Beamish award for his article, Crisis Control. To view the whole article, please visit GrainsWest.

CRISIS CONTROL

OCTOBER 1, 2019 TOMMY WILSON NO COMMENTS

RURAL CRIME SURGE BRINGS INCREASED VIGILANCE, DETERRENCE AND BETTER POLICING

BY IAN DOIG • ILLUSTRATIONS BY KYLE METCALF

Nine years out of 10, Doug Sell would have been in the field on Thanksgiving. But with snow on the ground this past fall, he and his family spent the day at his sister-in-law’s home. The following day at noon, he drove to his shop about half a kilometre from his house. “That’s when I saw the damage,” said Sell, who is Alberta Pulse Growers’ zone two director and farms wheat, canola and pulses between Rockyford and Beiseker.

Sometime over the preceding day-and-a-half, thieves had jimmied the main door and ransacked the building. Finding the keys in the shop truck, they vanished with the vehicle and equipment that included a slip tank, generator and welder. They had also broken the spigot off a gas tank while attempting to break its lock, spilling 500 gallons of gasoline onto the ground.

“We were far enough from the big, bad city that crime didn’t come out this far,” he said. “With three [thefts] in the last six months within a stone’s throw, we are not such an isolated, insulated community.”

Filing an insurance claim and paying a hefty deductible, he soon had the replacement equipment required to finish the harvest and fortunately had a second shop truck, but he described the experience as “a real royal pain.”

Farmers, Sell included, have been reluctant to speak publicly about rural crime, not wishing to draw further attention as targets. Now, he and his neighbours have vowed to be more vigilant and want criminals to know it.

“It changes our rural lifestyle, but you see a strange vehicle on the road that’s driving slowly, you stop and find out who it is,” explained Sell. “That’s the positive spin that I want to see on it. As long as we’re more vigilant and the bad guys know it, they’re simply going to stay away.” It’s a proactive attitude that appears to be sweeping the province.

CRIME RATES AND THE ROOT CAUSE

Statistics Canada has reported a five per-cent rise in Alberta’s Crime Severity Index for 2017. The agency also reports that the province’s rural crime rate was 42 per cent higher than in its urban centres that year. As well, with just 12 per cent of Canada’s rural population, Alberta experienced 21 per cent of the nation’s rural crime.

Putting these numbers in perspective, Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Mount Royal University, explained that crime rates have generally dropped 35 per cent since the mid-1990s, meaning any given Canadian is 35 per cent less likely to become a victim of crime than were their parents at the same age.

He also noted that while urban centres have more crimes and receive more attention as a result, the rate of crime in rural Canada has always been higher. Particularly in Alberta, the upswing in rural crime in recent years has been pronounced in areas adjacent to cities and is a spillover effect of increased illegal drug activity. “It’s methamphetamine and heroin,” said King. “People are getting horribly addicted and turning to crime to survive their addiction. That’s what’s bumping crime rates up.” He suggested dealing with this root cause will effectively reverse the trend.

Hit by the theft of equipment and tools, farmer and Alberta Pulse Growers’ zone two director Doug Sell said he and his neighbours have vowed to be more vigilant. Photo courtesy of Alberta Pulse Growers.

POLITICAL AND PUBLIC DEBATE

The stats don’t put rural crime at a crisis level, and King suggested that while all crime tends to be underreported, this is not the case with serious crime and would not affect the overall assessment of crime levels in rural communities. But, within the farm community, crime has caused a very real existential crisis.

Alberta’s opposition politicians have taken note. Last July, the United Conservative Party (UCP) released A Safer Alberta: United Conservative Strategy to Tackle the Rural Crime Crisis, a report prepared by former Alberta Crown prosecutor Scott Newark with input from the party.

“Many of our opposition MLAs were raising these issues in the legislature and then it just blew up,” said Airdrie UCP MLA Angela Pitt. “When you door-knock in these rural areas, there’s this level of anxiety that you’ll get from many constituents because they don’t know you or the car you drove up in.

“And it has bubbled up into cases where people have felt their only option is to take action themselves. The case of Eddie Maurice in southern Alberta is an example of how frustrated and how scared people are in rural Alberta.” Maurice, an Okotoks-area farmer, was cleared of charges after a warning shot he fired to scare trespassers ricocheted and injured one of them.

Pitt said the main concerns heard during town hall sessions included 911 calls receiving slow responses or none at all. “Many rural Albertans have had multiple break-ins and feel like they’re not being heard. They feel like nothing is happening to our criminals.”

The UCP report is intended as a blueprint for action, should the party form government. Its recommendations include the creation of a victims’ ombudsman office and reducing sentencing delays. It also recommends lobbying the federal government for Canadian Criminal Code changes that would preclude the prosecution of victims of crime and add mitigating factors for consideration when rural property owners are prosecuted for use of force in self-defence.

“I think it’s a very reasonable ask,” said Pitt, noting the Conservative Party of Canada partnered with the UCP in studying rural crime and calls for the same action in its own report.

King suggested there’s no question criminals engaged in on-farm crime are likely to be armed. Urban police have found suspected perpetrators increasingly carry weapons, and it stands to reason that they may be armed when prowling rural properties. However, while he said the role of political discourse in the debates is very important, it’s unlikely the Criminal Code will be altered.

“From my perspective, the current Criminal Code provisions are suitable and would fit,” he said. “The provisions for use of force are largely that you can use as much force in repelling someone as the force they are using towards you.” In cases where excessive force is used as a scare tactic, he said the decision to lay charges lands with the Crown prosecutor. “It’s in these situations the Crown needs to do a real fulsome look at the circumstances of a case before they decide to lay a charge.

“It would potentially be opening an incredible door to suggest there will be some general exceptions built into the Criminal Code if, hypothetically, someone living in a rural community can use a different level of force than might be [used] in an urban environment,” said King. Such a move, he explained, would contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and couldn’t be passed. “Is it going to happen? Hell no. Is there anything wrong with trying to advocate for it? Oh, hell no.”

Importantly, the public and political debate on the issue has driven the provincial government, police, volunteer organizations and rural residents to take action.

In March, 2018, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kathleen Ganley and RCMP Deputy Commissioner Todd Shean announced the launch of the province’s $10 million rural crime reduction strategy. Photo courtesy of the Government of Alberta.

MAKING A CHANGE

On March 9, 2018, the Government of Alberta launched a rural crime reduction strategy created in cooperation with the RCMP. It adopted methods the force has successfully implemented elsewhere. “We worked in partnership with the RCMP to determine how funding could be used in the most efficient and effective way, with a view toward what could be implemented quickly and have an immediate impact,” said Jason van Rassel, a communications advisor with the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General.

The initiative included the allocation of a $10 million injection—$8 million for the hiring of 39 RCMP officers and 40 civilian staff as well as $2 million to hire Crown prosecutors in rural Alberta. Later that year at a November news conference, Kathleen Ganley, Alberta NDP MLA for Calgary-Buffalo, and minister of justice and solicitor general, said a total of 59 officers, which included the 39, had been hired “between the rural crime strategy and budget.” In 2018/19, the province reported spending $500 million on policing, including 1,560 rural officer positions.

This seven-point strategy to reduce rural crime featured the establishment of four regional Crime Reduction Units. These are tasked with arresting repeat offenders and extinguishing crime hotspots. A civilian criminal analyst and an RCMP supervisor are attached to each mobile, five-officer unit associated with one of four districts—eastern, central, southern and western. They can assist any detachment or work on crime trends affecting various areas. From February to November 2018, Ganley said the units made nearly 700 arrests and laid approximately 2,300 charges.

“In making these arrests and laying these charges, the targets are repeat offenders,” said Laurel Scott, a media relations officer with the Alberta RCMP K Division in Edmonton. “Our goal is to have them stop offending.” She said a small group of habitual criminals is responsible for a large amount of crime. Measures include having them held in custody or facing increased jail time, but also providing social assistance.

Perpetrators tend to cross jurisdictional borders such as those between detachments, police forces and provinces. “With mobile units, we have the ability to target and try to stop them,” said Scott. Information sharing is key to the new policing effort. Each unit analyst also acts as an intelligence coordinator, gathering and sharing information with partnering police agencies.

The establishment of a paperwork policing support service has freed constables for field work and call-back units in Calgary and Edmonton handle non-emergency calls that are non-time-sensitive and don’t pose a threat to public safety. Ganley claimed the units will save more than 9,000 hours of officer time, or the workload of nine general-duty constables annually.

From January to November 2018, Ganley said the strategy saw property crime decline about 11 per cent across rural Alberta. She calculated this would equate to 366 fewer break-ins, 648 fewer vehicle thefts and almost 2,400 fewer total thefts from the year prior. “It’s important to remember, in each instance, those statistics represent families who feel safer in their home. We know that we still have more work to do.”

“It’s understandable that reduction isn’t going to be felt by someone who has been a victim of crime,” added van Rassel. “We’re going to continue working with our law enforcement partners and the justice system to provide the resources they need to address crime and prosecute the offenders.”

Though the UCP report proposes different methods, it embodies much common ground with the NDP rural crime strategy. This includes working with enforcement agencies to improve data collection and inter-jurisdictional cooperation. They also share an emphasis on greater public education and and stopping repeat offenders.

The UCP’s Pitt said her party is happy to see government action, but that crime rates are still up from 2015. She also suggested it’s too early to accurately make claims about where provincial crime rates are at and Crime Reduction Units simply represent a reallocation of officers. “We certainly hope [crime statistics] get better. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done and there are a lot of people out there that are really scared for themselves and their property.”

Alberta’s crime-reduction strategy includes actions that simply bring it into the 21st century, according to King. “All of those are really appropriate and useful and effective responses, but they were emergency responses,” he qualified. Policing agencies, he said, must realize more visible police presence in rural communities deters crime and that one bureaucratic approach doesn’t fit all communities, but rather, the unique needs of each must be accounted for. “If they commit themselves to doing that, and the province is prepared to provide financial support towards that end, things are destined to have improved in the short run, but will also continue to improve.”

Further aspects of the provincial program include the use of bait vehicles, GPS tracking of stolen implements as well as helicopter monitoring of criminal activities. Additional policing efforts outside the program include rolling out online crime maps through RCMP detachments. It’s a means of creating public awareness and engagement, said Scott. “To be clear,” she added, “we’re not asking the public to respond to crime, but to help prevent crime.”

PARTNERS IN CRIME PREVENTION

To this end, the RCMP partners with the Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch Association (APRCWA). The volunteer organization is made up of approximately 55 associations representing 20,000 members. President Cor De Wit is a beekeeper who operates close to the Edmonton International Airport. He explained many APRCWA associations are clustered around the QE2 Highway corridor, while the northern and southern portions of the province are not as well covered due to their size and lower populations. The rural crime issue has re-energized the group and awareness of its activities has grown, though he said membership hasn’t yet increased substantially as a result.

The organization has traditionally operated as extra eyes and ears for the RCMP, and this remains the case. Members are focused on passive patrolling—reporting suspicious people and vehicles when they spot them. What has changed is the APRCWA’s expanded focus on public education, crime awareness and prevention.

Started last year by the Leduc Nighthawks, Leduc Rural Crime Watch Association and Alberta Citizens On Patrol Association (ACOPA), the Lock It or Lose It campaign is an anti-vehicle-theft program that has gone provincewide. De Wit said simply using tamper-proof screws to secure licence plates can stop theft. For instance, he explained, a criminal will steal a three-quarter-ton truck and outfit it with a stolen licence plate from a similar truck. When police run the plate number, it doesn’t come up stolen.

“Keys in the ignition is another huge issue,” noted De Wit. Along with removing the keys from quads, trucks and implements, the group encourages people to record serial numbers. He emphasized police can do nothing when they find stolen goods if no one has reported them missing.

Also partnering with the RCMP and Rural Crime Watch, ACOPA volunteers conduct active patrols in and around rural communities. President Garth Kohlsmith, who ran a local bowling alley for 28 years, heads the Westlock chapter. He pegged membership at close to 2,000 with approximately 75 established chapters and eight more in the application process. He explained these citizens must first pass a background check followed by some training. From there, patrols generally meet with an RCMP liaison prior to hitting the streets of small towns and the roads between them.

Two-member teams typically make their rounds at night in cars bearing the organization’s logo. While they phone in what they see, and officers are dispatched if a crime in progress is reported, Kohlsmith said the patrol program creates a show of vigilance that’s a crime deterrent in itself. “Criminals see us and they know we’ll report them. They all know who we are.”

With the additional willingness to read a training manual and devote six or seven late-night hours a month to the cause, anyone can join, he explained.

Despite the positive statistics, many remain skeptical that the situation is improving. While Scott advised property owners to lock up homes and vehicles, and secure farmyards, she offered reassurance that the RCMP is on the case. “We are hearing your concerns. Trust us. We’re trained, we’re out there more than ever and we’re catching the guys doing these crimes.”

De Wit said that in his area, peace of mind has increased as the crime rate dropped to half of what it was a year prior and there had been no vehicle thefts for three months. “I just hope that people don’t stop being vigilant,” he cautioned. “That’s the secret here—to make sure we don’t drop our guard.”