DRUG SLEUTHS MAY GO RURAL

Province Also Considers Using Sniffer Dogs More

The government will move forward on recommendations to bring
undercover drug operations to rural areas, along with expanding the
drug-sniffing dog program in its battle against crystal meth, says a
senior Alberta justice official.

"We have our drug undercover surveillance teams that are in Edmonton
and Calgary. And we're looking at moving them out into the rural
regions," said Bronwyn Shoush, the Alberta government's director of
aboriginal justice initiatives.

She added, "We want more dogs. And we want the dogs to be seen as
friendly . . . coming into schools and making friends with kids,
because we saw a really positive reaction by kids to the drug dogs."

These ideas are two of 83 recommendations contained in the report
from the premier's task force on crystal meth, delivered in September.

The province is considering the recommendations. But a provincial
budget is scheduled for April 19, and the plan for implementing the
task force report was addressed in a caucus meeting and among deputy
ministers this week.

Shoush, a member of the task force, said financing for the new
initiatives still has to be sorted out in the next few months.

"Our new premier Ed Stelmach has identified safe, secure communities
throughout Alberta as a key priority of his," Shoush said. "That
includes the issue of crystal meth and moving forward with the
recommendations in the finished task force report on crystal methamphetamine."

Shoush was speaking Thursday in downtown Calgary at the Aboriginal
Health and Remote Access Forum, a conference looking at the health
challenges facing Canada's aboriginal communities. The conference
continues today.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the police force is in talks
with the province regarding expanded undercover work and the canine programs.

"Of course we had the recent change in government. So that has caused
some aspects of the (crystal meth) report to be revisited."

Oakes said it remains to be seen which recommendations from the
crystal meth task force will be implemented.

Calgary-Buffalo MLA Harvey Cenaiko, a former solicitor general who is
now the chairman of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission,
said he believes the Stelmach government is committed to taking action.

"We're still working on the plan," he said Thursday.