TAKE THE DARE, URGES WELLER

County council has to step in and do something about the DARE program
fiasco, says councillor Bob Weller.

"I don't think we can duck away from it," he said. "I guess that we could
make enough excuses that it's not our program and not in our buildings. But
I think it's something that we need to be involved in discussions."

Several schools in this municipality are not getting the Grade 6 Drug Abuse
and Resistance Education program because a lack of resources meant the
Park's top cop had to pull the uniformed DARE instructors out of classes
and on to the streets.

Insp. Brian McLeod had warned county council in December that without
dedicated funding for the program it would be cut.

He's hopeful the schools will see DARE again.

"DARE is going to remain in some form, but its capacity to deliver will be
assessed according to funding, which has yet to be finalized," said McLeod.
"I'm optimistic we can work with all of our partners, and that includes the
municipality and the schools."

The county must be a partner in funding discussions, says Weller, right
alongside the RCMP, school boards, and businesses.

"I'm not prepared to lay it on anybody in particular, I'm laying it on the
whole community and the key actors are going to have to get together."

The funding has to be there for the cops to run the DARE program, he says,
so that nothing is taken away from the regular duties of the police.

"With the demands upon the protection of people and property, which is
their (the RCMP) main objective, they're being taxed as it is."

How the funding gets to the program doesn't matter at this point, says the
Ward 5 councillor. Whether it means funding from the county or corporate
sponsorship (such as what is occurring in Fort Saskatchewan with Dow
Chemicals), Weller wants to keep the options open just so long as DARE is
restored to schools.

"In a day and age when we're really concerned about young people, their
confidence level and their ability to cope with such things as drugs and
alcohol, here's a program that's doing it. I'm just concerned about being
able to hang on to it," said Weller.

"Of all the things that happen in the schools, this is as important or more
important than a lot of the day to day curriculum in terms of what it's
doing for young people and equipping them for later years in adult life."