B.C. announced Monday (Sept. 9) it is launching an expert panel to review the practices of the Conservation Officer Service and determine how they can lower the number of bears being killed in the province. 

The B.C. government will be partnering with Canadian wildlife welfare group the Grizzly Bear Foundation to recommend new or improved ways that conservation officers can reduce and resolve conflicts between humans and bears. The recommendations will be reviewed by a third-party committee and are expected to be ready by spring 2025. 

The announcement comes after years of pressure from First Nations and wildlife groups, who have raised concerns over the number of bears being killed by conservation officers. 

In 2023, officers put down 603 black bears and 26 grizzly bears in B.C., . Both numbers represented a jump over the 10-year average, during which 533 black bears and close to 18 grizzly bears were killed annually. 

In the first six months of 2024, officers put down 154 black bears and zero grizzly bears. 

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The new expert panel will include government employees as well as members of the Grizzly Bear Foundation. They will together look at potential new training for conservation officers around orphaned cub procedures, relocation procedures and the latest guidance on care, handling and non-lethal techniques. 

In a statement, Environment Minister George Heyman and Water, Land and Resource Minister Nathan Cullen said they are also committed to better information sharing with First Nations, municipalities and other partner organizations. 

An independent committee will then review what the panel comes up with and devise a number of recommendations from it.

The province said it has already begun referring major officer conduct complaints to a third-party investigator.

Lesley Fox, the executive director of wildlife charity The Fur-Bearers, said she was happy to see Monday's announcement. She has long argued that conservation officers could be preventing some of the bear deaths they cause and that their actions require greater scrutiny. 

"I'm cautiously optimistic," she said. 

But, she added, she would like to see the Conservation Officer Service treated like a full policing organization, with all the legal oversight that comes with that. 

It's something BC Greens MLA Adam Olsen pushed to have included in recent Police Act legislation amendments.

"They dress like police, drive police-like vehicles, use police-like tactics, carry police-like assault rifles, have all the powers under the Police Act, but are not subject to police-like independent oversight and have no constabulary independence," Olsen said during question period in May 2023. 

At the time, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was non-committal, saying only that changes were coming around "governance and accountability," including oversight.

In a statement to Black Press Media on Monday, a Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy spokesperson said there is an ongoing process separate from their new expert panel that is working to determine if COS should fall under the Police Act.