It’s been almost a month since Police Chief Rick Bourassa expressed frustration about Moose Jaw being forced to handle — and pay for — provincial responsibilities, with that situation continuing to remain unchanged.
While providing an update about the Moose Jaw Police Service’s operating budget during the April meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, Bourassa said he planned to meet with officials — including the minister — from the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General about three issues that affected the police service and concerned him.
Those issues included being forced to guard prisoners at court and redeploying a member for $142,000 annually, prosecuting certain provincial statute offences — speeding — and redeploying a member for $72,000 annually, and being forced to fund the provincial 911 system by paying $231,000 in 2025 and $166,800 extra annually thereafter.
“So, there are a number of provincial responsibilities our budget is carrying that it should not be carrying and that our resources are handling that they should not be handling,” Bourassa said.
During the May board meeting, reporters asked the chief about how his conversations with the ministry went and whether anything had been resolved.
“No, we haven’t had any additional meetings (or discussions), but there will be meetings scheduled in the future,” Bourassa said.
“And I am meeting with all the rest of the chiefs in the province (because it’s) our Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police meeting next week in Saskatoon,” he continued. “And I’ll be there and we’ll be interacting and seeing if we can get any movement on those issues.”
It’s not unusual that there have been no further conversations with the ministry because everyone is busy attending to other tasks and activities, Bourassa added. Sometimes, it takes time to address concerns like this, so the only thing he can do is to continue to have conversations when possible.
The next police board meeting is Thursday, June 13.
