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By Colton Swidersky

Committee hears drugs are underlying issue for crimes

Jan 23, 2017 | 4:00 PM

MLAs touring the province to seek solutions on how to reduce crime are hearing that drugs are an underlying cause for much of the criminal activity in Saskatchewan.

A provincial caucus committee tasked with doing a crime-reduction report was in Meadow Lake today to gather feedback on one of many stops.

“We’re hearing in a lot of the centres that the underlying cause of a lot of crimes is drug related; whether that be gang activity, people on drugs making bad decisions, or people causing break and enters to get the money to support their habits,” said Battlefords MLA Herb Cox, chair of the Caucus Committee on Crime Reduction.

Looking into possible solutions to curb some of the crime going on in the province, Cox said the committee is travelling the province to try and hear what the issues are in each individual area, which will be incorporated into a final report. 

Tasked by Premier Brad Wall to do the report, Cox said the committee will make some recommendations on what they feel will be beneficial to solving some crime trends in both urban and rural centres.

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Earlier today, Jan. 23, the committee met with Meadow Lake RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Tim Sartison and other members to gather feedback.

“We had some excellent conversations with them, certainly not all about more police presence, they’re talking about visibility, I understand they have a very heavy work-load with taking care of prisoners from other areas and those are some things we talked about and looking at some solutions going forward,” Cox added.

 A spokesperson from the Divisional Media Relations Unit said police welcome any opportunity to improve the service provided to the people of Saskatchewan and welcomed the opportunity to participate in this process.

Meanwhile, Meadow Lake MLA Jeremy Harrison said the government’s very committed to doing all they can to reduce crime in the province.

“There’s always challenges, I think the RCMP does a really good job in managing what can be challenging circumstances,” he said. “There’s always more to do of course but with the tools they have they’re managing.”

The committee is comprised of Cox, Meadow Lake MLA Jeremy Harrison, Estevan MLA Lori Carr, Cut Knife – Turtleford MLA Larry Doke and Cypress Hills MLA Doug Steele.

The committee continues its tour across the province with stops tomorrow, Jan. 24, in North Battleford, Jan. 25 in Saskatoon, Jan. 26 in Prince Albert, Jan. 31 in Swift Current and Feb. 7 in La Ronge.

 

Colton Swiderski is a news and sports reporter for meadowlakeNOW. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski. 

by Colton Swidersky

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