La Ronge is in the process of creating a Crime Reduction Strategy. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

data collection

La Ronge council continues pursuit of crime reduction strategy with special meeting

Dec 18, 2024 | 4:54 PM

At a special meeting of La Ronge council on Tuesday, discussion continued on how to come up with a strategy for crime prevention in the community.

Council identified the development of a Crime Reduction Strategy as a priority in the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan to guide future decision making, areas of focus, and initiatives regarding crime mitigation. Over the past few years, leadership has heard concerns from residents about crime such as speeding, public intoxication, theft, vandalism, drug use, and gang activity.

The meeting on Tuesday was the start of council receiving feedback from stakeholders regarding crime in the region. It was dominated by a presentation from the RCMP that touched on a number of current issues and services that are provided by the force and its partners.

“If we are going to tackle any issues, we have to work collaboratively and come up with a strategy,” said La Ronge RCMP Staff Sgt. Derek Eberle.

“What I see and that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the same problems the folks of the community see, so one of the big issues that we do deal with is with the domestic violence portion of it with the underlying factors that surround that is the addictions problems. I don’t think we attend any domestic situation, or it would be very odd if there wasn’t some kind of underlying factor.”

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La Ronge Mayor Joe Hordyski explained the meeting and future meetings will revolve around reaching out to stakeholders to get a sense of their challenges with crime. Once that information is collected, council can then determine a way forward to address those challenges.

“When it comes to domestic violence, is there certain things we can bring in in terms of counselling?” Hordyski asked. “We should have a pattern of identifying what the needs are and then bring in resources, if possible, and certainly lobby for them.”

With the current timeline, council will not have a strategy in place until September 2025. Before then, council and administration will work to develop a list of stakeholders and resources, research best practices, determine the scope and focus of the strategy, develop desired outcomes, success measures, and evaluation methods, brainstorm and develop potential action items, and identify funding, resource options and implementation targets.

Coun. Vivana Ruiz Arcand questioned if there was any way to speed up the development of the strategy. She noted a lot can change in an eight-month time period.

Chief Administrative Officer Lyle Hannan told her it will largely depend on the amount of research and information gathering council is comfortable with receiving.

“If tonight and one other night is adequate information and presentations, then obviously we can streamline some time with it,” he said.

“The intent really was is once we have a strategy in place that identified some initiatives, there’s the potential that resource requests need to be made, whether that’s through the province or grants or the regional communities, etc. It’s unlikely we would immediately be able to implement something as soon as the strategy is done. You want to give enough lee time, so in the New Year, all those requests can be funneled through the budget process or get some time to apply for grants and hear back.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com