A new provincial regulation now requires conservation officers and Sask. Highway Patrol officers to get government permission before purchasing firearms and ammunition.
The change was prompted following a report from the Provincial Auditor which called the purchase of an AR-10, fully automatic rifles and silencers “questionable.”
Judy Ferguson noted that the purchases were not permitted for use by the highway patrol.
“This is what you would call a reactionary Band Aid approach on behalf of the SaskParty government, they didn’t think this through at all,” said Athabasca MLA Buckley Belanger of the new regulation. “The fear I have is that without a collaborative approach with the RCMP, and then you turn around, and you arm the COs, and there’s no engagement or awareness by the Indigenous community and the leaders in the northern many cases, the rural parts of our province. That’s the recipe for disaster.”
Belanger suggested rather than giving conservation officers more fire power to deal with front line crisis in northern Saskatchewan, the province invest in healing centers for addictions and begin to address the root causes of crime.
He said that crime is not going down in the North, but there is a severe lack of RCMP officers in the area. “I fear somewhere along the line, this band aid approach is going to create some significant problems. And now it even suggests a loss of life as being a serious threat, because this thing was not properly thought through,” explained Belanger.
Highway patrol and conservation officers will also need permission to buy bullet-proof vests, pepper spray and batons, as this is classified as special equipment.