Check stops a go despite funding cut
By JEREMY APPEL on December 21, 2019.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com
Medicine Hat’s police chief says enhanced Holiday check stops will continue as normal, despite a cut to provincial funding.
“We have to fund it ourselves,” Andy McGrogan said. “It really becomes a local decision. We’re still doing them. We’ve scheduled the same number of checks we did last year, which is four.”
He says paying officers overtime for check stops, which the Enhanced Alberta Checkstop Program was geared toward, will end up costing the Medicine Hat Police Service $3,600 this Christmas season.
Fortunately for the MHPS, they’re at the end of a budget cycle with better-than-anticipated results.
“If we were in a huge budget crunch this year and didn’t have the money, we wouldn’t do it, but we do have the money so we ran the stops,” said McGrogan. “It’s important.”
He said the first check stop of the season, which occurred in late-November, nabbed four impaired drivers.
“That’s pretty substantial in an evening. It pretty much drains our resources,” said McGrogan. “You need at least the number we have to run an effective check stop.”
The ministry of transportation gave “no indication (funding is) going to come back,” he added.
However, that could potentially change if the price of oil rebounds and the province has more money in its coffers.
“Alberta is like a banana republic,” McGrogan said. “One day we’re rolling in it, the next day we’re not. I can’t predict where we’re going to be tomorrow.
“They could re-institute it next year for all we know. It’s just the way Alberta is right now. It’s a tough economy.”
Although they nixed funding for the check stops, the Ministry of Transportation has earmarked $105,000 in funding for awareness initiatives – $80,000 for Students Against Drunk Driving and $25,000 for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, both via the Alberta Traffic Safety Fund.
The SADD funding will go toward teaching students about the dangers of impaired and distracted driving, while the MADD funding will contribute to its School Assembly Program, which educates Grades 7-12 students on alternatives solutions to driving impaired.
“MADD and SADD do good work to educate students and the public on the dangers of impaired driving and I’m pleased to continue supporting their efforts to improve safety on Alberta roads,” Minister of Transportation Ric McIver said in a statement Friday.
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