RCMP vehicles at the James Smith Cree Nation on Sept. 6, 2022. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

By Logan Lehmann

Sask. Marshal Service

National Police Federation not in favour of province creating new Marshal Service

Jan 19, 2023 | 12:00 PM

The National Police Federation (NPF) are opposed to the province creating a new Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS), stating the Saskatchewan RCMP remains underfunded and members do not have enough resources necessary to do their jobs.

On Thursday morning, the NPF sent a release highlighting the cons of a new Marshal Service and what it will do to harm the RCMP in the province.

“We believe investments need to be made in the right areas to ensure the proper delivery of policing services,” said Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation. “Although Saskatchewan’s population has grown considerably over the past fifteen years, the RCMP have remained underfunded across the province and our Members are consistently being told to do more with less when they are already overworked, stressed, and not fully resourced.”

The NPF also mentioned that Saskatchewan’s Throne Speech promised to commit $20 million annually to create the new SMS, but this commitment would do more harm than good to the RCMP with the NPF saying, “this would further divert funding from much-needed RCMP resources.”

The release also stressed that results from a national Pollara Strategic Insights survey in December 2022 said that only 12 per cent of the respondents said that they were in favour of the creation of a Provincial Marshal Service, while 34 per cent said they would rather see the funds be used to increase RCMP services across the province. Meanwhile, 73 per cent of Members said that they already support the services provided by the province, which is in the ballpark with national support levels in RCMP-served communities, which is 76 per cent.

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In response, the NPF recommends that the Provincial Government make the following two investments to support current RCMP Members and programs:

$100M over 5 years to bolster the hiring of 301 Regular Members

• This includes 138 Regular Members to supplement First Nations policing resources, and 154 Regular Members assigned to General Duty, federal policing, and specialized frontline support staff.

• Provide additional funding to create 205 administrative support positions in RCMP detachments to allow RCMP Members to spend more time in communities.

• Work with the RCMP in Saskatchewan to identify and resolve existing challenges within the current infrastructure before creating additional bureaucracy through new law enforcement entities.

Invest $2M to study police service delivery models for rural and remote communities

• In order to build the Saskatchewan RCMP for the future, review ways to offer better services and enhanced community safety for Saskatchewan residents and ensure better mental health and quality of life for our Members

The release ended by saying that the NPF is looking toward the next provincial budget to provide RCMP Members with the necessary resources and equipment to deal with these changes in the province.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann