FFWD REW

Warden service being ‘disbanded’ park veteran warns

Storied Canadian institution faces uncertain future after lengthy dispute

It started in 2000 with a simple question: why don’t national park wardens responsible for enforcing laws in remote parts of the country carry handguns like other law enforcement officers?

The question came in the form of a Canada Labour Code complaint from a Banff park warden. His question intended to strengthen safety in a storied Canadian institution sparked a lengthy battle between the wardens’ union and Parks Canada. The fight brought unintended consequences when Parks Canada took away wardens’ law enforcement authority last year and stripped them of their iconic uniforms earlier this summer. Gone are the Stetson hats khaki shirts and dark green pants replaced by a more casual uniform that includes baseball caps and golf shirts.

“The warden service has effectively been disbanded one year short of its 100th anniversary” says Scott Ward a 35-year veteran of the warden service. “And I wish the Canadian public would get behind it a bit more than they have so far.” Ward who spent most of his career in Banff and retired in 2005 says many current wardens are “frustrated and demoralized” but can’t openly speak about their concerns.

In May federal Environment Minister John Baird announced the creation of an armed 100-person force to police Canada’s 42 national parks. The force will pick up the duties taken from Canada’s approximately 350 wardens last year. “When they divide 100 people up between 42 national parks it’s going to mean a lot of small parks are going to completely go without law enforcement and the large ones are going to have just a very skeleton crew” says Ward. “It’s not anywhere near enough.”

Traditionally wardens spent about 25 per cent of their time on law enforcement mostly during summers. “If nothing was happening in law enforcement you could work on resource management [or] public safety” says Ward. “The multifunctional warden service was much more efficient.”

The new positions will be open to wardens and other Parks Canada staff. The future of the warden service itself meanwhile is a question mark. “It’s not clear at this point in time exactly how the warden service will be structured” says Doug Stewart Parks Canada’s director general of national parks. However Stewart says wardens will retain the resource management and public safety elements of their jobs — tasks like ecological studies fire management and trail maintenance. “It’s tremendously important work” he says.

Don Mickle another retired warden of 30-plus years also worries Canada may lose its warden service. He worked in Banff until 2003 and was free to enforce laws regulating fishing camping and other park uses — laws he says are vitally important to the park. “Now you can’t” he says. “You can say ‘well you shouldn’t do that’ but that’s about it.”

After the 2000 labour complaint a federal health and safety officer concluded wardens — many of whom were trained by the RCMP — weren’t properly equipped for law enforcement and instructed Parks Canada to arm the wardens or modify their duties. A 2007 Occupational Health and Safety appeal decision confirmed the wardens were at risk and instructed Parks Canada to take them off law enforcement until they were trained and equipped with sidearms.

That’s when Parks Canada took wardens off law enforcement for good. “Completely irresponsible” says Sid Marty another former warden and writer who lives near Pincher Creek. He calls the warden service the “institutional memory and conscience” of Parks Canada and wonders if it’s the target of an ideological attack. “If you’re interested in privatizing national parks… then you don’t necessarily want these people that are the cultural memory and the conscience hanging around explaining why this is not a good thing you’re doing. So I just wonder.”

After last year’s appeal decision the wardens’ union suggested the traditional uniform put wardens at risk since they were no longer enforcing laws. Stewart says a joint union-management committee recommended the uniform change earlier this year. “So really Parks Canada made the decision in response to safety concerns” he says.

Not everyone is convinced by the change. “I think people underestimate what a uniform represents and the warden uniform has really become symbolic of the protection of these incredible landscapes we call national parks” says Greg Belland executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS) Calgary-Banff chapter. Mickle Ward and Marty all agree. “For every warden job they have they have at least 3000 applicants at times” says Marty. “These are people who want to wear that uniform and do that job…. The uniform signifies not just law enforcement — it signifies the entire culture of protecting the national parks on behalf of the people of Canada.”

Eight years after the original complaint the question of whether or not wardens should carry guns has almost become a peripheral one. “I don’t think most people expected it would go like this” says Ward. “Certainly the person who filed the original grievance didn’t expect it would go like this…. It almost seems like a vindictive thing as a result of this complaint. That’s how it appears to a lot of people anyway.”

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