Scott Moe was in Prince Albert on Thursday. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By paNOW Staff

Crime and safety platforms

Sask Party promotes safer communities platform, NDP points to rising crime rates

Oct 10, 2024 | 10:41 AM

Community safety and policing are the latest issues being raised on the provincial campaign trail.

Sask Party Leader Scott Moe made a stop in Prince Albert on Thursday and announced a re-elected Saskatchewan Party government would make Saskatchewan neighbourhoods and communities safer by funding more police officer positions, adding addictions treatment spaces and strengthening the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act.

“You should be able to walk down the street in your community, go shopping at the mall, or play with your children or grandchildren at the local playground without fear or worry,” he said.

With respect to how they would strengthen The Safe Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, Moe said they would provide officers with additional authority to address public nuisances and shut down nuisance properties, such as the power to address an abandoned building that has been repeatedly broken into or has trespassers squatting in it.

Another example he cited was allowing businesses to designate the police force to have the authority to access their properties at any point in time.

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“This allows police to remove unwanted individuals that may be looking to cause harm to a property or to a person to remove them from that property without having to contact the owner,” he said.

Scott Moe was accompanied by Browyn Eyre (Justice Minister), Paul Merriman (Minister of Corrections and Policing) and Tim McLeod (Mmister of Mental Health and Addictions). (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Moe also acknowledged another piece to addressing crime, is addressing addictions and he noted the Sask Party’s commitment since 2011 to provide an additional 500 recovery beds.

“Those who pose a danger to themselves or may pose a danger to someone else, or are then given treatment options in that facility, and to date, and that is what is a very much a pilot program. We’ve seen nearly 400 people that have accessed those services and those complex needs shelters in both Saskatoon and Regina,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Sask NDP claim Moe’s announcement offered no new solutions. They pointed to Prince Albert in particular, where they said violent crime rose 18.5 per cent year-over-year and crime severity increased by 13.5 per cent.

Carolyn Brost-Strom, the NDP candidate for Prince Albert Carlton, spoke to reporters after the press conference and confirmed her party’s commitment to cut the marshall’s service.

“There’s been a bunch of money sunk into it and there’s been no new police officers on the ground, and what we need is action now, not in two years,” she said.

Carolyn Brost-Strom is a registered nurse and has seen first hand through her work at the hospital, the province’s addictions crisis. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Sources have advised paNOW the marshall’s service has drawn multiple officers from the Prince Albert Police Service and Brost-Strom confirmed she had heard that too.

Paul Merriman, Minister of Corrections and Policing, confirmed they are drawing officers from Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan.

“So we’re trying to spread that out as much as we can. So we’re not drawing down from any one specific police force,” he said

Merriman confirmed the Sask Party’s investment of $20 million into the marshall’s service, as well as $17 million into municipal policing which includes both the police college and SCAN officers. A further $28 million has been dedicated to the RCMP.

“The challenge on the municipal side is getting those officers in and that’s why we’ve beefed up the police college, that’s why we are strengthening the police college so they can double the amount of output,” he said.

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell