By Thia James

POLL: Mayor implementing ‘Lookout Prince Albert’ citizen program

Mar 26, 2013 | 12:25 PM

The mayor of Prince Albert is planning to implement a new program aimed at getting the city’s residents to look out for each other.

The program will be called ‘Lookout Prince Albert’ and Mayor Greg Dionne will be rolling out the new program over the next few weeks. He said the program will look out for the homeless, as the city awaits a report from the Board of Police Commissioners and the HUB looking at solutions for the problem of freezing deaths.

The mayor plans to make the rounds at various media outlets to promote the program. He said the program will engage taxi drivers, the media and Parkland Ambulance.

“The biggest challenge that we have when it’s 30, 40 below is locating people in trouble. And the last unfortunate gentleman that succumbed to the weather, we had seven cars out that night. We were very successful as a force, to find three and take them home to a safe place,” he said.

On March 21, a man was found unconscious and unresponsive in the snow early in the morning. He was declared dead after police and Parkland Ambulance attended the scene and he was brought to the hospital. The coroner ordered a post-mortem investigation in to the cause of the 62-year-old man’s death.

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The official cause of death has yet to be released to the public.

“But what Lookout Prince Albert is going to do is engage all the taxi drivers, Parkland Ambulance is coming on board, we going to ask the media to get on board. We have shift workers that are out, we have security patrols that are out that time of night.”

He said citizens who see someone who shouldn’t be out in the cold should call the police to get that person the help they need.

The idea took shape after the most recent suspected freezing death.

“Like our police said we had seven cars out there looking, but, you know, that’s fourteen eyes,” Dionne said after Monday’s council meeting. “Well, why aren’t we all out there looking?”

During the winter, the program can look out for homeless people and others potentially in distress outdoors.
In the summer, “I want to roll out the program still saying Lookout Prince Albert, lookout for your neighbours when they’re on holidays, if you see something that’s not right, call the police,” he said.

“I just want people to look out,” he said. “And if they don’t think it’s right, call the police.”

Parkland Ambulance’s Lyle Karasiuk said Dionne should be applauded for his efforts to help people who are homeless. “Or in some cases, the mayor is also asking for [people to look out for] those persons who might be intoxicated that are wandering our streets. But certainly our agency and all of the agencies who have shift workers or people who work after hours need to participate.”

When the Lookout program is rolled out, it will increase citizens’ awareness, Karasiuk said.

He said the paramedics operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, after hours when it’s cold, so they are already ensuring people are safe.

“So to participate in something like this to, to involve the Prince Albert Police Service in assisting those individuals so that they are properly cared for is going to go a long way to make our community a lot safer.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames