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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he sympathizes with a rural community tormented by a cult and will help where he can, but it’s ultimately an issue that needs to be solved locally.
Moe says his government has expanded legislation to help municipalities deal with derelict buildings, such as the compound the Kingdom of Canada cult occupied and later fouled with overflowing sewage in the village of Richmound.
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Moe, speaking to reporters Wednesday, described the torment the village, west of Regina, has gone through as “quite awful.”
But Moe added, “Ultimately, it should be the owner of the (cult) property that is paying.”
Moe also said Doug Steele, his Saskatchewan Party legislature member responsible for the area, has maintained a direct line of communication with the village to provide support.
His government later said in an email it has also provided payment from its Municipal Revenue Sharing grant of nearly $130,000 since the cult came to town in December 2022.
“In the time since concerns initially arose, the ministry has engaged with residents and leaders from the village on over 60 distinct occasions,” the email added.
Moe made the comments after the Opposition NDP and two Richmound residents held a news conference earlier Wednesday to call on the government to cover the costs the village incurred in its attempts to drive the cult out of town, including legal and cleanup fees.
Opposition NDP legislature member Brittney Senger also criticized Steele for not doing enough to support the community.
“Residents of this town have been through two years of hell at the hands of a radical cult,” she said.
“I’m asking today for Doug Steele and the government to do the right thing and help this community. … The community just wants to move on and they want to have a bright future again.”
Steele was not made available for comment.
Shauna Sehn, one of the Richmound residents at the NDP news conference, said the cult members, who reportedly harassed, yelled at and videotaped locals, have caused severe emotional harm.
“Many of us feel that we will never truly heal from this,” she told the news conference.
“We’ve been through hell. It feels like the people who are supposed to represent us have completely turned their backs on our community.”
Last month, Richmound Mayor Brad Miller told The Canadian Press that when Ricky Manz, the building’s owner and cult member, stopped paying the building’s utility bills last year, the village shut off its water and sewer.
The result was waste overflowing from toilets and seeping outside the building’s entrance. Later on, members were seen dumping sewage on the property.
The sewage bubbled and pooled for months, the smell saturating the area. Children stopped going to the only playground in the village next to the compound.
But it wasn’t the sewage that led RCMP to raid the building on Sept. 3.
Mounties said they obtained a search warrant on a report that someone inside had a firearm. They seized 13 imitation semi-automatic handguns, along with ammunition and electronic devices. Manz, cult leader Romana Didulo and others were arrested.
Several face charges and have since been released on bail. Didulo has been ordered to stay away from Richmound, and Manz and Didulo have each been ordered to not contact the other.
The provincial health authority also ordered members out of the building, deemed uninhabitable, and told Manz to “immediately” fix “discrepancies.”
In an email earlier this month, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said the order is still in effect.
Miller said in text messages earlier this month that the sewage outside has dried up and community has been feeling better since the cult left town.
