MOOSE JAW — The Moose Jaw Police Service’s Police and Crisis Team (PACT) provides valuable support to residents facing mental health crises, so recent provincial funding could see the agency add a third unit.
Minister Paul Merriman announced on Sept. 9 that the Ministry of Corrections, policing and Public Safety was providing the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) with $952,000 to hire eight new officers. This increases the number of provincially funded positions in Moose Jaw to 14 from six.
Based on the province’s fiscal year, the ministry will start funding the new positions on April 1, 2025, with $714,000 given from April to December. The province will then provide the full amount beginning on April 1, 2026, and annually thereafter.
According to a report presented during the Board of Police Commissioners’ September meeting, the MJPS expects the cost to train and equip the eight new members to be $656,385 in 2025. Furthermore, it hopes to send four recruits to the Saskatchewan Police College in January and another four in July. Those new members should be ready for field training by late 2025.
The MJPS has an authorized strength of 64 positions, but that number sits at 60 because of four recent retirements, including two that were unexpected, Police Chief Rick Bourassa told the board. Also, one recruit in training decided to find another career.
“This will take a lot of work on our part because we will actively recruit,” he said. “And I will be assigning someone whose full-time job will be recruiting … because other police services are receiving additional positions as well, so there will be a lot of recruiting going on across the province.”
The MJPS will create a recruitment video to attract new members, a project that Bourassa knew would be of “top quality” because Jared Robinson at Nebulus Entertainment was producing it.
The chief noted that the agency would look everywhere for new personnel, including in Moose Jaw, across Saskatchewan, and nationally. However, it would not poach officers from other provincial police services because of an agreement that all agencies had signed. Yet, it would take members from other agencies if those people contacted the MJPS.
If Moose Jaw hires experienced officers, it would have the money to pay them based on existing funding and requirements in the collective agreement, Bourassa said.
If the agency hired inexperienced members, it has calculated it would need $656,385 to recruit, train and equip those officers — an amount that the provincial funding would easily cover in 2025. However, in four years, the costs would start exceeding the provincial funding.
Furthermore, the organization will have to purchase more vehicles for those new members, so costs will increase again.
“We’ve had to rework some of our budget numbers really quickly, and when the time is right, we’ll have that budget prepared,” the chief added.
The MJPS plans to use its new officers to support front-line operations, with a specific focus on protecting children, maintaining safety in public spaces, and preventing and disrupting serious criminal activity.
Child protection would focus on internet child exploitation.
While those recruits train, Bourassa said he plans to determine whether the MJPS requires a third PACT unit and whether he could assign an officer to that role. However, he would have to speak with the Saskatchewan Health Authority since it would have to provide another mental health worker.
“PAC teams have been extremely valuable, not only in helping us in being proactive to resolve issues before they become more serious, but in reducing emergency wait times and reducing demand on psychiatrists,” he continued, adding he would bring a proposal in the future for a third team.
Bourassa added afterwards that the agency would use social media, career fairs and its citizen police academies to recruit people.
