PRINCE ALBERT - Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) leadership is in the process of studying the idea of Indigenous-led policing and how it might help Indigenous communities.
PAGC is currently developing a Feasibility Study for a Self-Administered Police Service.
The Prince Albert Grand Council Public Safety Implementation Team (PAGC-PSIT) is working with area First Nations as part of its ongoing consultations.
"The team is working on a feasibility study for a self-administered police service, aiming to understand the current and future needs of our communities," PAGC said on its Facebook page.
The team plans to first meet with the leadership of each First Nation and then meet with the larger communities as part of the process. PAGC membership is comprised of 12 First Nations and 28 communities.
PAGC is also encouraging its members to complete a Community Survey as part of the project that's available on its website, and at community engagement sessions.
David Sanderson is a lead advisor for Prince Albert Grand Council and the public safety implementation team advisor on the project. He is also a former RCMP officer. He described the online survey as a "living document" that will be a useful way to gather feedback from membership.
"We're going to keep it open as long as we can," he said.
Sanderson gave an update on the study and how it can benefit area communities.
"It's part of our effort to explore how we can develop self-administered police services that meet the unique needs of our communities," he said. "We are committed to ensuring the safety and security of our communities by listening to the voices of our leaders and members... This is just the beginning. We are meeting with the leadership of all 12 PAGC nations first. After that, we'll be hosting larger community meetings to hear from everyone... We are excited to keep these important conversations going."
The federal and provincial governments are providing a total of $1.4 million in funding to support the study, which is expected to be completed in 2026.
A number of engagement sessions are currently underway in various communities to gather input.
Sanderson said during the sessions people are asked to talk about how they view policing in their communities.
"You have to bring the people together," he said.
Coming up next, community engagement sessions will be held at Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation on July 23 at Sandy Bay, on July 24 at Pelican Narrows, and on Aug. 15 at Southend. Then, on Aug. 8 at Little Red Reserve, which is part of Montreal Lake Cree Nation, and on Aug. 19 a session will be held at Wahpeton Dakota Nation.
Sanderson told SaskToday it has been a long process to move the study forward.
"It's probably taken PAGC seven years to secure the funding and work with the government to get this feasibility study done," he said.
His role is as the advisor, engaging communities to find out how they would they view a self-administered police service. The study will also look at how the report's findings could possibly be implemented.
The study will look at PAGC's 12 area First Nations' and 28 communities' policing needs.
Sanderson noted no changes to the existing policing are planned at the current time.
The study aims to offer some insight, to give direction for potential future needs.
"It's working with the community to see how we could improve policing is what we're looking at," Sanderson said.
The study was needed to see if an Indigenous-led policing may offer more support to communities than the existing model of policing.
Wide coverage area
"The RCMP has such a vast area [of coverage] of policing," Sanderson said. "They can't be everywhere. Sometimes the communities don't have the proper policing. Policing is a tremendous responsibility. They have a big area to cover in Saskatchewan. So we, the nations, are looking at: Can we have our own self-administered policing to look after our community needs, to provide better policing? That's what we're trying to capture."
He noted that remote communities in particular have challenges with policing. Some take two- to three-hours driving time to access from larger centres.
"There is a geographic area that we have to look at to see what models can we use for policing," Sanderson said.
He noted that First Nations especially want to improve community safety.
Sanderson said some of the current challenges for policing for both the RCMP and municipal policing are a lack of resources.
"When you look at all over Canada, resources is an issue," he said. "Do we have enough police officers? That's one of the challenges we have. Recruiting is definitely harder for policing. That's one of the challenges - recruiting people to be police officers. We have to change that."
Sanderson would like to see a continuous policing service for communities to meet the needs.
"That would be the ideal, having boots on the ground 24-seven would be ideal," he said. "They need somebody to call, somebody who is there, to respond to calls and to provide safety. Most of these communities don't have any police at all. A lot of First Nations don't have 24-hour policing."
A year ago, PAGC leadership visited the Navajo Nation Police in Arizona to see how they manage policing such a large area, because some of PAGC's communities are very remote also, with such a wide area for police to cover.
"When they [Navajo Nation] signed treaty, it looks like the government said: 'This is your land. This is your community. Here's some money. Figure out your own policing system, your own court system and your own justice system, and make your own,'" Sanderson said. "They did that to them. That's how they came about to have their own justice system in their community."
When the PAGC study is complete it will show some potential policing models that might possibly benefit the PAGC area communities, to improve policing.
"We're collecting data, stats, policing models, [to see] how can we improve policing, what communities want, how do they see, have a vision, of safer communities," Sanderson said. "Once the results are in, we'll [include them] in one major report. Leadership, all the chiefs, all the councillors, in collaboration with the federal and provincial governments will look at and decide what would be the best policing model we can use... It's going to take some time, but it's really important to capture the voices of the community members. They have to have a voice, and we have to listen to them. They have to tell us their stories. They are the ones that live in the community."
