DIDSBURY — Embattled independent MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s bid to return to the United Conservative Party caucus was rejected Friday after he pleaded guilty to illegal hunting on a central Alberta property and was ordered to pay a fine of $3,000.
In a statement issued after Fildebrandt’s court appearance, UCP leader Jason Kenney said Fildebrandt didn’t mention the hunting case during a November meeting with party leaders about his bid to rejoin caucus.
“As elected representatives, we must be expected to show the highest level of integrity. MLA Derek Fildebrandt has unfortunately demonstrated a pattern of behavior that does not meet that standard,” Kenney said in a UCP news release.
Fildebrandt admitted shooting a deer last Nov. 4, on what he thought was Crown land.
Fildebrandt, 35, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Wildlife Act of Alberta of being in unlawful possession of a deer.
Commissioner Danny Elliott accepted a joint submission from environmental prosecutor Craig Kallal and defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk for a total fine of $3,000.
As part of the agreement, $2,000 will go to the Fish and Wildlife DNA research fund.
In reading from a statement of agreed facts, Kallal said wildlife officers were called to a rural property near Sundre by the landowner after she discovered a truck parked at a gate in her field.
The driver informed her that his buddy had just shot a deer in the field and they had permission to hunt on the land, to which the woman disagreed indicating she and her husband were the landowners.
Fildebrandt soon came into view dragging the animal’s carcass.
“Fildebrandt immediately apologized and said that he thought he had been on Crown land,” said Kallal.
The MLA “indicated that he had not seen any of the ‘no hunting’ signs that were posted at various points in the field,” the prosecutor told Elliott.
“He apologized again for not having seen the signs.”
When a fish and wildlife officer arrived Fildebrandt immediately admitted to having shot the deer.
Following the guilty plea, Fildebrandt declined to comment but later issued a written statement.
“I inadvertently shot a deer on private land without the owners’ permission,” he said.
“Every hunter knows it is their responsibility alone to know what property they are on and for this, I am truly sorry.
“Today I took full responsibility for … the civil charge, paid the fine and sincerely apologized to the landowner.
“I have learned an important lesson from this event and again I apologize to anyone and everyone who may have been inconvenienced.”
Outside court, Fedorchuk stressed that his client only admitted a provincial offence, not a criminal one.
“These are provincial offences that leave no (criminal) record and I certainly believe that this is the end of … his legal woes,” Fedorchuk said.
The former United Conservative Party member left caucus in August to sit as an independent after it was revealed he had rented out his taxpayer-funded apartment on Airbnb and double-dipped on meal expenses.
He was also handed a $402 fine on Dec. 18, after admitting a charge of hit and run under the Traffic Safety Act in connection with a collision in June 2016, where he backed into a neighbour’s van in Edmonton.
Fildebrandt told CBC as he was leaving provincial court in Didsbury Friday that in the meeting with Kenney “he hadn’t expected a grilling about everything going on.”
“It had been my intention to discuss it but I didn’t at the time,” he said.
Fildebrandt did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts