tank: rural resistance to sask. marshals scheme will grab attention
some opponents of a government scheme for a new marshals service hail from the heart of sask. party support in crime-afflicted rural areas.
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policing minister paul merriman speaks to the media in regina on wednesday, march 22, 2023.
heywood yu
/
the canadian press
the saskatchewan party served up two surprises at its throne speech two years ago as it delivered a tough-on-crime message.
the invitation of infamous convicted murderer colin thatcher by government mla lyle stewart, who died last month, severely undermined the crime-fighting theme. but the announcement of a proposed marshals service was supposed to buttress the government’s credibility on crime.
the motives behind the marshals concept were never made clear, but they can probably be traced to a pledge by the upstart buffalo party in 2020 to create a provincial police force.
feeling a threat to its right flank after a surprisingly strong showing by buffalo in the 2020 election, the government came up with the saskatchewan marshals service, but struggled to explain why and what the new force would do.
the buffalo party has since dissolved into irrelevance, but the questions and uncertainty about the marshals remain.
politically, the initiative was intended to appeal to rural areas that fear rising crime. how a 70-officer force that is supposed to cost $20 million a year is going to seriously tackle crime in a sparsely populated province the size of saskatchewan has never been convincingly explained.
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but a recent letter to premier scott moe suggests support is wavering in his government’s base outside regina and saskatoon.
the letter urges moe’s government to cease funding the marshals service, which it says has already received $14 million, and focus resources instead on existing police forces. the message cites a lack of “adequate consultation with the communities and stakeholders it is meant to serve.”
at least 89 municipalities in saskatchewan agree, since they signed on to the letter. they include 23 towns, 33 villages and 32 rural municipalities. that opposition comes straight from the governing party’s base.
among cities, only warman has signed on, but saskatoon city council will decide whether it wants to join the resistance this month.
the government will likely shrug if saskatoon, which boasts its own municipal police force, opposes the marshals service.
but the defiance from the heart of its support, which is supposed to love and embrace this concept, is sure to grab its attention in a way that criticism from the union that represents police officers (a leading marshals opponent) will fail to do.
sure, the communities that have signed on to the letter represent a sliver of the total. saskatchewan’s bloated municipal government includes 147 towns (with a total 2021 population of 149,600 and falling), 239 villages (40,407 people, also declining) and a ridiculous 296 rms (serving 176,501 people).
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eleven per cent of rms from all over the province publicly oppose the marshals service. what we don’t know for sure is whether the other 89 per cent silently support the idea or are quietly skeptical.
yet few people living in any community in the province likely quibble with the need to address crime in saskatchewan, which continues to lead all provinces with the worst crime severity index. the provincial severity numbers are far higher than in either regina or saskatoon.
saskatchewan rcmp assistant commissioner rhonda blackmore said last month that some rural communities have a crime severity index 6.4 times that of the cities.
seven years ago, the saskatchewan party government came up with what it touted as a new strategy to address rural crime that sounds somewhat like the marshals service. it was also criticized.
former justice minister gord wyant announced $5.9 million for a protection and response team that would include 258 armed officers, consisting of existing municipal and rcmp officers, repurposed officers, ministry of environment conservation officers and 30 new positions.
since wyant, who is now running for saskatoon mayor with a “safe streets” slogan, announced the initiative, saskatchewan’s crime severity index and violent crime severity index have risen significantly.
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the marshals service may yet prove to be a good idea, with saskatchewan’s rcmp contract expiring in 2032 and questions swirling about the future of the rcmp contracting out services.
but the provincial government’s ongoing failure to reduce crime for its rural saskatchewan base likely dampens enthusiasm for the marshals scheme.
phil tank is the digital opinion editor at the saskatoon starphoenix.
our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. for regina leader-post newsletters click here; for saskatoon starphoenix newsletters click here
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