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MNR, city cops close to bear agreement

North Bay Police Service chief Paul Cook hopes a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Natural Resources will reduce the number of service calls for nuisance bears.
North Bay Police Service chief Paul Cook hopes a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Natural Resources will reduce the number of service calls for nuisance bears.

Cook said Tuesday the North Bay Police Service responded to 26 bear calls in 2002 and were forced to dispatch two bears.

Last summer, though, the service responded to 182 bear calls and was forced to dispatch eight bears.

Similar problems
Municipal police chiefs throughout Northern Ontario have been lobbying the province to try to do something about nuisance bear calls, Cook said.

“I know in speaking with the police chiefs in Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury that they’re experiencing similar problems,” Cook said.

“So we’re anxious to enter into an agreement with the MNR and hopefully better educate our public on how to deal with nuisance bears.”

The MNR, Cook said, has been putting together an educational package about bears, “some very basics about securing your garbage especially if you live near a wooded area, some dos and don’ts.”

“They also 1-800 numbers people can call them at, as opposed to picking up the phone and calling the police every time they see a bear.”

Process of tweaking
The police service, Cook said, will still deal with bear problems when there’s a threat to members of the public.

“But there are calls where we have bears that are slightly wandering away from their natural habitat, that being the bush, and repeat calls where we’re going back time and time again and those are the ones we’re hoping we don’t have to respond to,” Cook said.

Right now the police service is in the process of “tweaking” the memorandum, Cook said, “to sure you take out things or add things to suit your own needs and the needs of the ministry locally.”

Negotiations are in the final stages, Cook said, and he expects the agreement to be in place early this summer.”