LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Public safety needs sitting on a desk in Ottawa

Our government is serious about reducing crime and making our communities safer.

The RCMP is funded by both the province and the federal government. The reality is that we have $28 million on the table for 180 new officers, but it’s contingent on the federal government’s ability to recruit and deploy more RCMP officers to our province. We made that commitment in March of this year and have yet to receive any meaningful commitment

from the federal government.

Our municipal policing partners have asked for additional support, and on September 5, we announced a major investment of over $17 million to fund around 100 municipal police officers and to double the number of Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods officers in your communities. This historic commitment will increase our annual financial commitment to our municipal partners by over fifty percent.

In addition to training more officers, establishing new specialized crime units, and record policing funding, we have also started work on a new Saskatchewan Marshal Service (SMS) that will be able to support the important work our men and women in uniform are already doing. The SMS will be available to be deployed across the province, responding to gangs, guns and drugs, rural crime, and apprehending high-risk offenders.

We cannot let our public safety needs sit on a desk in Ottawa, and we are taking an all of the above approach to addressing crime by working to enhance municipal policing, expand RCMP positions and establish a new law enforcement agency to help support them.

Honourable Paul Merriman,
Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety