RCMP carbine training at local shooting range upsets quiet community near Regina

For Jeff Nesbitt and his young family, the firearm range near their quiet community of Stone Pointe wasn’t a problem until a few months ago.

“When we first heard it, it was similar to somebody putting firecrackers in your kitchen sink and lighting them off,” Nesbitt said.

RCMP started using Regina Wildlife Federation’s shooting range for carbine training in July 2015. Almost 900 cadets have been trained here so far, shooting about 36,000 rounds a week.

“That’s all you hear is shooting. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, bang, bang,” Bree Hastings, a resident who lives near the firearm range, said.

“For people that think it’s just a hunting rifle noise, it’s ten times that, and there can be multiple people shooting at one time. It’s totally different from people just doing recreational shooting,” Nesbitt said.

Sean Hyndman, Regina Wildlife Federation’s vice president, said the organization has been on the land for more than fifty years and RCMP business is important to the federation.

“We take those funds and we purchase land, we sustain the land, and donate to conservation efforts,” Hyndman said.

“So yeah, it makes a huge difference.”

At a meeting with the Regina Wildlife Federation, neighbours and the RM of Edenwold on Wednesday afternoon, RCMP said they will continue using the facility as training grounds until October 2017 but will take a break in July and August. They also said they will run training sessions between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m in the future.

“We’re looking at any way we can to even reduce the number of times we’re there. One of the things we’re doing is working with F division to talk about alternative facilities,” RCMP Chief Supt. Kevin Jones said.