Estevan is one of the communities impact by a change in service delivery from the Ministry of Environment.
Beginning this spring, the ministry will no longer offer walk-in service to the public in 19 ministry field offices.
Front counter services will be discontinued in Estevan, as well as Assiniboia, Big River, Buffalo Narrows, Humboldt, Île-à-la-Crosse, Kindersley, Leader, Lloydminster, Maple Creek, Moose Jaw, Outlook, Pinehouse, Preeceville, Shaunavon, Southend, Spiritwood, Wadena and Weyburn.
Dates for this change will vary from April 1 to Oct. 1; most offices, including Estevan, will lose their front counter service on May 14.
Kevin Murphy, who is the assistant deputy minister for the resource management and compliance division with the Ministry of the Environment, said the ministry studied the utilization of front counter services in a number of locations, particularly those that didn’t have counters open for most of the week.
“We’ve determined that expectations of the public have changed. There is a significant utilization of the vendor network and our online services, and we felt that it was just a good thing to be able to do to change the way that we’re delivering service,” Murphy said in an interview with the Mercury.
It will allow the ministry to be able to provide other services as well.
“We’ve made a shift in the way that we’re delivering service, and we’ll continue to look at public expectations,” said Murphy.
The provincial government has been considering the change for about a year.
Sixteen part-time staff and three full-time staff will be impacted by the change. The person who works out of the Estevan office is a full-time employee who is in the office from Monday to Thursday.
The majority of the impacted offices (10) are currently only open twice a week.
Clients formerly served in these locations will be encouraged to use electronic self-serve options such as the online hunting, angling and trapping licence (HAL) system, private licence vendors or one of the ministry’s 13 offices with front counter services.
Conservation officers will remain working at the offices serving the impacted communities. Estevan currently has two conservation officers.
If there is an emergency or an enforcement issue, people are asked to contact the tips line at 1-800-667-7561.
“If it’s a non-emergent issue, our expectation is for people to contact the provincial inquiry centre line,” said Murphy.
That number is 1-800-567-4244, and they will then be directed to the relevant officers on duty.
Hunting and angling licences can be purchased through private vendors, by phone or online through HAL system.
“Sixty per cent of our licence sales are still with our vendor community, so that’s all the way from Canadian Tire and Cabela’s, down to local gas stations, service stations, etc.,” said Murphy.
People are encouraged to use the online and vendor network, but if they don’t have Internet access, they can contact a regional office that will still provide front-line service. The nearest regional office is in Regina. An office in Moose Mountain Provincial Park still provides licence services, but not some of the other services.
The ministry noted that in 2018, there were more than 409,000 hunting and angling licences sold in the province. The 19 impacted offices accounted for approximately two per cent of all provincial licence sales.
