Sask. Legislature passes unanimous motion supporting RCMP Depot

Right after spending 40 minutes throwing insults across the aisle at each other, members of the Saskatchewan Legislature came together Monday to throw official support behind RCMP Depot Division remaining in Regina.

Last week, the final report on the mass shooting in Nova Scotia included a recommendation to shut down the Depot Division training facility in Regina and move cadets to a three-year, college-style training program.

NDP Leader Carla Beck brought the “urgent and pressing” motion Monday afternoon.

It read: “That the Assembly opposes any plan for changes to RCMP training that involves the closure of Depot Division in Regina and the loss of more than 500 jobs.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Both Beck and Premier Scott Moe had made their opposition to the recommendation known publicly last week, but Beck thought it important that all the MLAs put their voices to strongly state that, even as they support the recommendations in the report to fix concerns about the RCMP.

“But also that we very strongly stated that we think that Regina should be a part of that solution and that that training could and should happen here in the Queen City,” Beck said after the vote.

Beck said the findings in the report are significant around the need for improved training and approaches to policing, but she also pointed out Regina has the University of Regina and the First Nations University of Canada, as well as Depot.

“I think that there is a way for those training needs to be met (and) that modernization to be met here in the Queen City,” said Beck.

Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Christine Tell agreed, saying she doesn’t want to see Depot closed in Regina.

“RCMP are going to have to be trained. Training is going to continue whatever form that looks like, and so why not continue using a training facility that’s already here in Regina and has history and has been here for a long time?” explained Tell.

“The recommendation to disband RCMP Depot seems a little bit harsh.”

Tell, a former police officer, thinks six months of training for officers is adequate, and she doesn’t think the three years recommended by the commission is needed.

“Often recruits nowadays come into policing with post-secondary education (or) work experience. They used to hire them at 18. They don’t do that to the same degree they used to, realizing the complexities of policing in today’s modern world,” said Tell.

Tell didn’t feel the province’s recent push toward other kinds of policing, like a Saskatchewan Marshals Service would have had anything to do with the recommendation.

The province hasn’t reached out to the RCMP or federal government about this — Tell said they’d just go the full recommendations — but she is planning on speaking to her counterparts and making sure this message gets through to them “for sure.”