The Saskatchewan government has halted a plan to purchase high-tech equipment and further develop its marshals service’s specialized response unit, according to the province’s community safety minister.
A bid request posted online in late July showed that the Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS) requested items, including night vision goggles, sniper rifles and a multi-shot launcher, for the specialized unit. In a statement Monday, the service said no equipment had been purchased yet, noting that the response unit was incorporated into its current budget.
Saskatchewan Minister of Community Safety Michael Weger said he has told the service to put a stop to that development and any purchases. The community safety minister said he met with Saskatchewan Marshals Service Chief Marshal Robert Cameron on Friday morning before speaking with reporters.
“I gave the clear direction to the chief marshal that any discussion (or) planning regarding this specialized response unit would be paused immediately,” the minister said.
Weger claims he was made aware of the SMS’s work developing the unit at a briefing last Thursday.
“At my level, and as to my direction as the minister of community safety, there has been no direction for the marshals to proceed with a specialized response unit,” he said at a news conference in the Legislative Assembly.
The SMS chief was also unaware of the work relating to the specialized unit, Weger continued. He said he believes the SMS, and specifically the Saskatchewan marshals employee who submitted the request for bids, got “overly ambitious.”
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“Again, I’ll take overly ambitious over lazy any day of the week, but (they were) overly ambitious on starting the process of a specialized response unit when we’re not ready for that yet. We’re not at that point yet as a marshals service,” the minister said.
According to Weger, the chief of the SMS assured him that internal steps are being taken to review this situation and ensure future processes go through the proper chain of command.
The safety minister said the service will continue to focus on its work alongside local and First Nation police forces, as well as the Saskatchewan RCMP “to work towards safe communities, from one corner of the province to the other.”
“That is the continued focus of the marshals,” he noted.
No investments, other than SMS employee time, were spent on the specialized response unit, Weger said, adding that the unit will eventually become a priority after the service addresses staffing shortages.
Hugh Gordon, the Opposition NDP associate shadow minister for community safety, told reporters the government is “putting the cart before the horse.”
Gordon spoke in Saskatoon Friday afternoon, after Weger’s news conference.
“The people of Saskatchewan are absolutely gobsmacked,” Gordan said. “In case the minister (of community safety) didn’t already know, or understand, it’s his job to know.”
He said the government is shifting blame to an unnamed, unknown SMS employee, instead of holding itself accountable.
“The time and resources wasted chasing expensive equipment, for a team that doesn’t exist, could have been used to support recovery programs, tackle gangs, support victims or address the massive staffing shortages facing police departments across this province,” Gordon said.
“This bid should never have gone out in the first place. And the only reason this minister is walking back this bid is because it appears he was caught napping on an important purchase in his own agency.”
He said Weger and the chief of the SMS being unaware of the unit and bid is “unbelievable” and “makes no sense.”
“This wasn’t like a belt or a hat or a vehicle. This was specialized equipment (that) had a significant dollar figure attached to it. There is no way that management wasn’t aware of this decision, never mind the minister,” the shadow minister said.
“It’s clear that this is an absolute circus over at the marshals (service).”
If the SMS could make a fair, justified case for having a specialized response unit, Gordon said he would consider supporting it.
The SMS was introduced in 2022 by the province as a means to provide additional law enforcement, proactively investigate and support local police, the province said in a news release in November of that year. It expected the service to be operational with an annual cost of approximately $20 million in the mid-to-late period of this year.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
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