I went in to the Red Deer F&W office a couple of weeks ago to attend to a small piece of business and found the door locked with a note on it saying that the office was closed and would remain so until the administrative staff returned on July 24. I phoned there today (Aug 2) and got a recording saying that the office was closed until August 20 (again because there was no administrative staff). Still haven't been able to complete the matter I wanted to finish up a couple of weeks ago.
Looks like the "beginning of the end" to me.
Now if I'd been looking to get a free sex change operation, I bet I'd have had no trouble at all finding someone in the provincial civil service to help me out.