All three officers should be in La Ronge by December. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Additional Officers

La Ronge council signs nearly $1.2 million policing contract

Oct 10, 2019 | 12:29 PM

Taxpayers in La Ronge will be paying $1,170,000 over three years to employ three police officers under the town’s direction.

The decision to enter into an enhanced policing service with the RCMP was made at a regular council meeting Wednesday, where all councillors with the exception of Mayor Ron Woytowich voted in favour of it. There was a lot of discussion before council came to their decision with the high cost and the impact of it being one of them.

“It’s already hard enough for our town to be competitive in property taxes with Air Ronge, which doesn’t pay for anything for policing,” Woytowich said. “Now, we’re going to end up paying more again even though they don’t pay at all.”

Woytowich was also skeptical of the chance the province will make the town continue paying the bill even once the three years are up. Under the contract, however, council does have the option to cancel with a one-year notice to do so.

While council will be able to provide guidance to the officers, they will in no way be allowed to set their schedules like telling them which time of day they should work. Councillors have been told there are currently two officers in La Ronge waiting for direction, while the third officer should arrive in December.

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“A couple things that bug me is if there is one officer off sick, whether it’s paternal leave or training or what have you, and they say they are going to have another officer to fill the position, they’re just taking another officer already in town and charging us for it,” Coun. Matthew Klassen said.

Klassen also expressed concerns with the price and the fact they can control the officers’ hours of employment. He stated he doesn’t think enforcement is the answer to the town’s issues, but rather the money should be spent on education and social programs.

Deputy-Mayor Dallas Everest and Coun. Jordan McPhail, however, both stressed the need for the officers as part of the town’s desire to reduce alcohol consumption in La Ronge. Everest stated the hiring of officers is all part of a multi-facetted approach.

“The alcohol strategy was supposed to be one of them, the policing strategy was supposed to another one,” Everest said. “If [we] are only going to do one then say ‘Hey, we didn’t change anything,’ then we failed already because we’re not following up with any of the other stuff.”

McPhail agreed with Everest.

“As a municipality, under our own mandate of what we’re supposed to be providing to the community, is safety and policing services,” McPhail said. “We look at the Northern Alcohol Strategy and I said from the beginning it has to be multi-facetted and this is part of it.”

The Town of La Ronge already pays $202,000 per year for policing services. In the next three years, taxpayers will pay an estimated $1,776,000 for policing.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno