Saskatchewan municipalities calling on feds, province to address community safety

WATCH: Provincial municipal leaders gathered in Saskatoon this week with safety top of mind. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Leaders of Saskatchewan urban municipalities are looking to the provincial and federal governments to better support community safety.

Delegates from municipalities across the province are gathering in Saskatoon for the annual Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention, where many municipalities are saying community safety and well-being challenges stemming from government policies are negatively affecting the ability to attract people to their communities.

“When the federal government is formed, we need to make changes to the Canada Health Act,” SUMA president Randy Goulden said.

“That has to change so mental health can be at the same level of physical health because it affects everyone in the communities the same way.”

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Goulden says healthcare is a provincial responsibility, yet municipalities are the ones left dealing with the negative consequences of drugs, health and addiction when they don’t have the same level of resources as the other branches of government.

“It’s happening in our communities, in our streets, in our schools, in our hospitals and it’s taking up resources that we could have go many other ways,” she said. “We need the provincial government on board.”

During his roughly 50-minute speech to delegates during Monday’s keynote address, Premier Scott Moe spent more than 10 minutes talking about community safety, repeating his talking points of getting tough on drug traffickers while creating pathways to the province’s new system of recovery-oriented system of care for mental health and addictions.

“There’s a broader source of what we need to deal with here, and that’s the poisonous drugs that are in our community,” Moe said to reporters afterwards.

“We need to get it to hell out, and those people that are making it available in our community to drug dealers, they can get the hell out too.”

Goulden said resources for many municipalities are limited. Some municipalities are calling for increased funding and resources for more RCMP officers to deal with drug dealers settling in some of Saskatchewan’s smaller centres, while others can’t enforce a simple bylaw infraction.

“If you can’t enforce them, they’re not worth the paper their written on,” Goulden said. “To enforce, you have to take that to provincial court. Well, those are all backed up. They’re still being backed up since COVID.”

As part of the provincial budget tabled on March 20, the province is allocating $274 million to the Ministry of Justice. A portion of that funding will go towards establishing bylaw courts in Rosthern and Fort Qu’Appelle to reduce the strain on the provincial court system.

“There’s still more work to be done,” Goulden said.

As increased efforts are put towards community safety, Moe is urging the federal government to beef up the criminal sentences.

“Change the Criminal Code of Canada so that there’s actual teeth in it to keep our communities and our families safe,” Moe said.

In October 2023, the province launched a new action plan for mental health and addictions to create 500 new addiction treatment spaces in the province. Moe says 260 of those beds are operational.

Last week, Saskatoon councillors unanimously voted to explore other options for homeless people to be safe at all hours of the day as the wait to find a permanent shelter continues.

Those discussions could include creating a 24-hour drop-in centre with councillors seemingly frustrated at the lack of progress since the action plan was implemented.

“I just don’t think that this is the formula that works anymore. As we continue to see more and more people that are unhoused,” Mayor Cynthia Block said during the committee meeting.