Ending the contract with the RCMP will save taxpayers nearly $400,000 per year. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

RCMP update

La Ronge council ends enhancing policing contract, crime reduction team arriving soon

Apr 13, 2022 | 4:14 PM

La Ronge council has decided to end a major enhanced policing contract with the RCMP that was signed in October 2019.

“We have decided to give notice on those enhanced policing positions because, in our opinion, we just weren’t seeing the return on the investment when there has just been constant vacancies with the RCMP,” Mayor Colin Ratushniak said.

The decision could result in the departure of three members from the La Ronge RCMP detachment. As part of the contract, three additional officers joined the detachment for three years and dedicate at least 70 per cent of their on-duty time to town responsibilities. The total cost of the contract was $1,170,000.

In a quarterly report sent to town council from La Ronge RCMP, Staff Sgt. Dean Bridle stated he was confident the current three officers would remain at the detachment without municipal funding.

“Senior management met with representatives from the provincial government where the continued funding was discussed for these three positions,” he wrote. “I am confident that this will happen.”

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Since January, the report notes those three officers have engaged in 171 pro-active patrols in the town’s residential and industrial areas. It adds those members also represent the detachment at weekly HUB meetings.

Bridle mentions in the report retention and recruitment of experienced members remains an issue for the RCMP. The main concern is limited housing available to purchase or rent in the tri-communities, but work has been underway with the RCMP’s Asset Management unit, North District and the Operations Strategy Branch with plans of developing housing.

“The proposed plan would see developers build a variety of shelters that would include stand alone bungalows, duplexes and fourplexs,” Bridle wrote. “The RCMP would then enter into long-term leases with the developer, and then in turn, rent the residence to an RCMP member.”

In 2021, the provincial government announced the expansion of crime reduction teams in both La Ronge and Meadow Lake. There are already seven crime reduction teams in the Saskatchewan, which have shown to be effective in disrupting, dismantling and prosecuting organized crime. The reports states seven officers should be arriving in La Ronge soon as part of the expansion.

“They were supposed to start trickling in in April and we’re in April now and we are starting to put pressure on the government for that,” Ratushniak said. “Their answer was we will start seeing one or two here in the next few weeks. We are at the mercy of the government, unfortunately, but we are continually putting pressure.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno