There’s a new chief in town. Staff sergeant Zane Semaniuk joined the Okotoks RCMP as detachment commander in September, after the position had been vacant for nearly a year. The move from Cardston, where he held the same position, has been a positive one so far, he said. “It’s been quite a bit of a change, a different size and a lot more amenities here,” said Semaniuk. “One thing I couldn’t get over here was how friendly everyone was.” He said whether he’s dressed in uniform or just out in his civilian dress, people hold the door open and greet one another. It’s a real community feel, he said. It was the community feel that drove Semaniuk to apply for the position in Okotoks. “It was time for a change and the community is what drew me in, seeing what was here and the way the town was set up and their ideas and philosophies and missions and values that set in with me hard, so I jumped at the opportunity to apply for the job here and I’m glad everything worked out,” he said. There have been a number of moves throughout his career. Semaniuk began in Manitoba, where his first career was with the Department of Natural Resources and Manitoba Conservation. He worked in that capacity for more than seven years before he joined the RCMP. At age 26, he went to Regina to attend the RCMP Depot Division and train for six months. The decision didn’t come easily to him. “It was a tough one,” said Semaniuk. “I really enjoyed working for Manitoba Conservation. I think it was more the stability with the job there. And I enjoy working with people, out and about, involved with the community, and that’s a huge thing with the RCMP and the community policing.” From Depot, he was posted at Lynn Lake, Man. “That’s about as far north as you can drive to the west in Manitoba, which ironically is where I was born and raised until I was 10,” said Semaniuk. “So that was kind of neat, to go back to my home community, so to speak.” A mining town, the population fluctuates in Lynn Lake and it was about half the size it had been when he was a child, he said. A lot of people still knew who he was, though he didn’t remember many himself. Though the faces weren’t familiar, the places were. “Growing up, up north, hunting and fishing is huge so that’s what you did with your parents,” said Semaniuk. “I go back there years later and I can still remember every lake we ever fished in and where the rocks and reefs are.” After time at Lynn Lake, he was transferred to Gillam, Man., which was the furthest point on the east end of the province, he said. Gillam was primarily a hydro town and was a more urban community that what one would expect to see in northern Manitoba, he said. It came to be that way because many people moved there from larger centres like Winnipeg, he said. “They’ve relocated and you’d ask people how long they’d been there and they’d say they planned to come for two or three years and they’d been there for 30,” said Semaniuk. “It was that small-town feel though.” Next he was moved to Portage la Prairie, Man. for eight and a half years before Semaniuk and his wife started setting their sights out west. “We thought if the opportunity ever presented itself where we could move west and see the mountains we’d give it a shot, so that’s how I ended up in Cardston,” he said. He was detachment commander at the sergeant rank in Cardston for four years beginning in 2014. He said Alberta now feels just like home. Now in Okotoks, he’s learning a new model of policing again, but he said he’s up for the challenge. “It’s the volume and size here,” said Semaniuk. “And it’s different here because we have municipal and provincial policing here, and I look after both for Okotoks.” The team is also significantly larger, he said. He enjoys working with everyone in the detachment and getting to know the community in the process. “That’s what’s most important to me and that’s what I’m doing here,” said Semaniuk. He said he’s ready to tackle issues like rural crime and has been involved in working with the MD of Foothills on its Enhanced Policing Program, which is a three-month trial period putting extra officers from Okotoks, High River and Turner Valley on rural roads. The partnerships formed in the community and with municipalities and other agencies are important, he said. “Working with municipal enforcement and the fire department, it’s good to get a good working relationship with them so they keep us in the loop with what’s happening in the community,” said Semaniuk.
