Coquitlam RCMP's newest officer-in-charge has been around the Red Serge a lot longer than her 23 years in policing might suggest.
Insp. Annette Fellner grew up in Regina, where her mother oversaw custodial services at the RCMP Academy Depot Division — the school where would-be Mounties from across Canada go to train.
As a family member of a civilian employee, a five-year-old Fellner had special access to the facility and remembers taking swim lessons at the academy's pool and skating lessons on its ice rink.
"I spent my childhood at our training academy," she said, adding: "I was introduced very young."
While she decided to become a police officer after leaving high school, she said seeing Mounties at the depot in their red uniforms on parade or during their musical rides left an impression. "You think this looks amazing and you want to be part of that," she said. "From a young age… I was seeing it and getting socialized to that world."
Fellner graduated from the academy in 1996 and took up her first posting in Surrey, where she spent eight years.
In 2004, she transferred back home to Saskatchewan, where she taught at the academy for four years, before moving to Manitoba, where she was promoted to the Federal Serious Organized Crime unit.
In Manitoba, Fellner assisted the RCMP in developing its Peer-to-Peer program, which provides support to officers dealing with anything from personal life changes to mental health issues. During that period in her career, she was also part of rolling out the Respectful Workplace program, an initiative designed to promote respect and inclusivity in the RCMP.
The effort was part of a cultural change within the police force, one Fellner, who is the first female OIC at the Coquitlam detachment, said she has watched evolve over the course of her career.
As a cadet, she said she would not have pictured herself in a leadership role in the RCMP, noting that while there were some woman at higher levels, today, "the representation is different."
"I think definitely… there are more female role models at a higher level now than what we have seen when I joined in the 1990s," she said. "Having those opportunities as females and showing that we have the opportunities to do those roles in the organization, it is exciting to be able to do that."
After Fellner's stay in Manitoba, she made her way back to the west coast, where she worked as a regional duty officer out of Green Timbers in Surrey.
Before long, she took a posting as OIC at the Mission RCMP Detachment, where she spent a couple of years before moving into her current role in Coquitlam.
Since unpacking her new office, she said she has been meeting with elected officials and community stakeholders in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Kwikwetlem First Nation, Anmore and Belcarra. The community engagement is important for her, she said, to understand what is going on in the area and what types of issues she will need to address.
"Having that connection and making sure I understand the concerns of what is going on here," she said, "my day-to-day is just immersing myself in that… Being able to be part of this community and having this role here is really exciting for me."
