Provincial funding responsibilities and the Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS) were under discussion at Wednesday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting. 

SMS is expected to be operational in 2026 and have 70 officers in the province to investigate crimes in rural and remote communities, with $7 million allocated for this year’s budget, and $20 million to be the annual cost when it is running.  

Commissioner Doug Blanc expressed concerns about the service taking funds and officers from the local force. “I have a fear when this service comes forward, they’re going to be looking for some money. They’re going to be looking for experienced officers, that are not going to be at the lower end of the pay scale so to speak – they're going to be at the mid or upper [range],” said Blanc.  

Blanc asked Police Chief Rick Bourassa for his response to the new service, which has now been designated as a police service in the province under The Police (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act, 2023. 

“My comments now can’t be seen in any way as trying to influence how that law goes – I make those comments quietly behind the scenes when we’re consulted by the folks in the Ministry, which did not happen – there was no consultation on this,” said Bourassa.  

“We were called to the Throne Speech two years ago and were briefed very shortly before the speech about this new police service that was being established.” 

Bourassa added that he was unclear on the service’s mandate. “If you come to the police services that already exist in this province, that are well-established, have infrastructures built, have the resources, and provide us with the resources, we will come up with plans to get at those issues.” 

He said that while he did not agree with the service, it was going to proceed, and MJPS would “participate as is appropriate”.  

Bourassa raised concerns about potential jurisdictional disputes and a lack of information sharing. “Adding an additional police service into that, that has a completely different governance structure, completely different mandate from the rest of us, will not be useful in future.” 

Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Paul Merriman was asked this morning about the new service and Bourassa’s comments. “One of the biggest things I think that might be misunderstood about the marshals is, this is also to help support existing police services in the province such as municipalities, First Nation, and of course RCMP.” 

“This isn’t anything to do with jurisdiction; this is just having some more boots on the ground to be able to deal with some of the crime issues we have across our province.” 

Merriman commented on concerns surrounding potential poaching of local police forces, saying that they are looking to increase their compliment at the police college, and recruit from outside the province, including Ontario and British Columbia.  

“We’re going to work with local police, as well as RCMP, to make sure that we’re not pulling from areas that might already be a little thin in their compliment of officers.” 

Regarding potential jurisdictional concerns, Merriman said they would be looking to address any concerns that are raised by the province’s police forces. 

In addressing concerns about provincial funding responsibilities falling on local police, Merriman said that he meets with Chiefs of Police regularly, and most recently met on Thursday, April 11.  

“I’ve asked the Chiefs of Police – which they’ve agreed to – was to bring me back some dollars as to what this was costing each individual department. We had that discussion probably two weeks ago. We both agreed at the meeting on Thursday that they were still gathering this information, so I’m waiting for them to get this information to me, and then we have to obviously look at budgetary factors.” 

“I committed that I would follow-up with all of these – we would get together in the next four weeks, so I’m not sure where the disconnect is with Chief Bourassa who was in the meeting. [He] seemed content with that approach.” 

With regards to MJPS being responsible for conducting prosecutions of provincial statue offences, Merriman said he discussed this with the Attorney General several days ago. “She committed to me that she would talk to the prosecutor's office and see what some options were.” 

Merriman also spoke about the introduction of the federally mandated upgrades to the 911 system that could cost MJPS $231,000 in 2025.  

“What we’re looking at is options – is this something, for example, Moose Jaw wants to do by themselves and still have a stand-alone system [or] do they want to come into the provincial system where the province would pay for the capital costs, and then there would be a fee for the using of that.” 

Merriman’s next meeting with Chiefs of Police is expected to take place in four weeks.  

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