The Town of Bonnyville’s active recruitment for a Community Peace Officer has been boosted by council.

Since January, the town has been without a CPO and has been trying to fill the position. While there’s been some interest, town staff say, the wages the Town is offering is “making it difficult to attract good candidates,” according to the council package.

Town council reviewed figures of what other town staff earn at Tuesday’s meeting, plus comparisons to four other municipalities and saw they were paying that position at a much lower rate.

Council followed administration’s recommendation to increase the starting salary by 22 per cent, an estimated increase in $17,000.

“We’ve been trying to recruit since January, and we’ve had no bites,” said Mayor Elisa Brosseau on The Morning After. 

“Administration took a step back and decided, well, are we on par with being competitive in the market for a community peace officer? And they found that our wages do fall behind substantially and they wanted to see us put more money in, allocate more money for a wage increase, so that we can at least be competitive and fill that position sooner rather than later.” 

This review stems also from residents who wish to see more enforcement of town bylaws.