Left to right are Mayor Greg Dionne, Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre, Minister of Corrections Paul Merriman, MLA Alana Ross (Northcote) and PAPS Chief Patrick Nogier. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

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Two provincial ministers and local MLA Alana Ross were at the Prince Albert Police Service’s main station Monday to talk about changes to provincial laws that will give officers more tools to work with.

Minister of Justice Bronwyn Eyre and Paul Merriman, Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, pointed to changes restricting use of bear spray in urban areas and the pending creation of the Marshal’s Services as part of the Saskatchewan Party’s approach to public safety.

Eyre said that it was important to give police a way to handle the increase in bear spray attacks across Saskatchewan.

“We’re dealing with this uptick in the thousands…and calling for some other way beyond just the penalties in the Criminal Code where you are reduced to only dealing with bear spray once it has been used,” she said.

“We’re seeing hundreds of incidents in communities across the province and this limits seizure and fining to only urban spaces.”

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Police Chief Patrick Nogier said that in the last five years, PAPS has seen almost 700 incidents of bear spray being used against people, including officers.

Changes to the legislation provide for fines up to $100,000 for offenders. It also bans changing of the canister to make it look like something other than bear spray.

“So, with the regulations, you can still buy bear spray for hunting, you can still buy bear spray for hiking. You can still obviously transport it and store it safely if you’re planning a camping trip. This is for urban spaces,” said Eyre.

There is no reason anyone needs bear spray in a movie theater or in a park, or in a pool, or at the exhibition.”

Altering the bear spray container, as was done in this photo, is an offence. (submitted photo/PAPS)

Sprays with lower levels of capsaicin, known as dog spray, were not affected by the changes.

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Merriman said that the Saskatchewan Marshal’s Service (SMS) is still scheduled to be operational in 2026 and renovations on what will be their headquarters in Prince Albert are soon to be completed. A total of $7 million was allocated by the province this year to establish the SMS.

However, adding 70 officers to a new police force when existing forces like the RCMP are facing shortages may be a challenge.

Merriman said they don’t want to leave existing police services in Saskatchewan short so they are looking further afield.

“Well, we’re looking at not just inside the province but outside the province. Anybody that’s applying to be a Marshal has to have a minimum of four years of service in policing somewhere in Canada,” he said.

He added that the province increased its funding to the RCMP and municipal forces.

“We want to increase the police force across the province. We don’t want to rob from one police force to create another. So, we’re looking at that when we are recruiting those individuals to make sure we’re not from depleted police forces.”

While the officers in the Marshal Service will be trained already, a refresher course is going to be in order, so they are considering an expansion of the police college. The RCMP is also looking at increases, but their recruits are trained in their own facility at Depot in Regina.

Also at the press conference, several Ministry of Justice initiatives were touted including $4.7 million being spent on courtroom safety measures, which include new, standardized distress button and monitoring systems across provincial courthouses; $990,000 for the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), an increase of 20 per cent from the previous year, to hire a team commander and expand its operational capacity.

A total of $45 million has been invested by the provincial ($21.6 million) and federal ($23.4 million) governments to support the First Nations Inuit Policing Program. The funding will support the First Nations Community Safety Officer pilot project, the self-administered File Hills First Nation Police Service, and community tripartite agreements that deliver dedicated RCMP policing services to 45 First Nations in the province.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com