NDP leader Carla Beck (centre) stands with candidates Nicole Rancourt and Carolyn Brost Srom next to the Prince Albert Police Station. The NDP have pledged to take the money from the Marshal's Service and give it to local police if they are elected this fall. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Election 2024

NDP crime plan includes scrapping Marshal’s service

Aug 30, 2024 | 3:48 PM

With the provincial writ expected to drop in September, the Saskatchewan NDP is swinging into election mode.

On Friday, Leader Carla Beck and local candidates Carolyn Brost Strom (Carlton) and Nicole Rancourt (Northcote) spoke to media in front of the Prince Albert Police Station on 15th Avenue and outlined their plan to address violent crime.

“The Sask. Party have spent $14 million dollars so far and haven’t added a single boot on the ground into local communities,” said Beck. “We should be directing this money into the frontlines today.”

Her plan to combat crime has four planks and the first one is to scrap the Marshal’s Service that is supposed to be based in Prince Albert.

“No one asked for this and 100 municipalities have said they don’t want it,” said Beck.

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Beck said the $20 million promised to create the Marshal Service would have been better spent if they were given to existing forces to add more officers quicker.

She also said it isn’t good enough to just add more police officers, the causes of criminality need to be addressed as well and that means more focus on mental health and addictions treatment.

A new concept that she would like to try is an Unexplained Wealth Taskforce that would dig into people who have a lot of assets and don’t have the income to support it – often a sign of illegal activity.

“I want to address the people that are bringing this poison into our communities,” she said.

The details of how that would happen are not yet worked out as it hasn’t been done before in Canada.

Beck said it would involve working with the federal government to find out where the unexplained wealth lies.

A fourth plank in the crime platform is to offer rebates to business, places of worship and families to install security measures like alarms, doorbell cameras and motion sensor lights.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com