Hit or miss: How will the province’s new bear spray regulations affect Prince Albert?
According to Prince Albert’s Chief of Police, new provincial bear spray regulations are a move in the right direction both for the city’s police service and for the community as a whole.
Patrick Nogier was asked by paNOW to respond to the recently introduced legislation which is only being applied to cities with 5,000 people or more, and comes in response to over 3,000 reports of bear spray across the province over the past five years.
“[The legislation] provides our police officers with another level of enforcement legislation that allows them to get the job done,” Nogier said, noting they were among the numerous police agencies involved in consultations with the government and had been asked to review patterns and trends.
In 2019, there were 96 bear spray related occurrences in Prince Albert, which increased to 115 in 2020 and then 169 in 2023. Nogier noted these occurrence could involve someone turning over a canister to police that looked like bear spear or an officer physically coming across one.