January 19, 2023
Regina, SK – Last week, the National Police Federation submitted its pre-Budget asks for 2023-2024 to the Government of Saskatchewan, calling for strategic investments in policing that support Saskatchewan’s growing population and evolving public safety needs.
The Province has made important investments in the RCMP in Saskatchewan, but we believe they should go further to address the core issues impacting our Members – who police 99% of the geographical area of the province – by increasing resources for the RCMP to meet both current and future demand.
“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,” said Brian Sauvé, President of the National Police Federation. “We believe investments need to be made in the right areas to ensure the proper delivery of policing services.”
Saskatchewan’s Throne Speech committed to investing $20 million annually to create a new Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS), however this would further divert funding from much needed RCMP resources. A national December 2022 Pollara Strategic Insights survey found that only 12% of respondents support the creation of the Saskatchewan Marshal Service, and nearly three times more respondents (34%) would prefer to use that money to increase RCMP services across the province.
More importantly, our Members in Saskatchewan enjoy strong levels of support (73%) for the policing services they provide, which is consistent with national support levels (76%) in RCMP-served communities.
The NPF recommends making the following 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.
“As the province’s public safety needs continue to evolve, we are looking to this next provincial budget to provide our Members with the proper resources and equipment to deal with these changes,” said Morgan Buckingham, Director, Prairie Region, National Police Federation.”
About the National Police Federation:
The National Police Federation (NPF) was certified to represent ~20,000 RCMP Members serving across Canada and internationally in the summer of 2019. The NPF is the largest police labour relations organization in Canada; the second largest in North America and is the first independent national association to represent RCMP Members.
The NPF is focused on improving public safety in Canada by increasing resources, equipment, training, and other supports for our Members who have been under-funded for far too long. Better resourcing and supports for the RCMP will enhance community safety and livability in the communities we serve, large and small, across Canada.
For more information: https://npf-fpn.com/
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Media contacts:
Fabrice de Dongo
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Sarah Kavanagh
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(604) 842-6864