Saskatchewan MP taking constituents’ worries about crime to Ottawa

By Doug Lett

The MP for northern Saskatchewan says he is hearing more from people worried about crime.

Earlier this month, Gary Vidal — the MP for Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River — delivered around 40 letters to the federal public safety minister’s office. The letters were from northerners fed up with crime.

“A lot of it was break, enter and theft, a lot of it was violent crimes,” Vidal said. “It was a variety of really, really sad and nasty stuff.”

He added he’s been hearing more of it in recent months.

“I think it’s getting worse. We’ve got a lot of them lately. When I first started three years ago (as an MP), we didn’t get that many. It’s been a concern over the years, but it seems like it’s gotten worse over the course of the pandemic,” he said.

He’s not alone. In early November, the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN), which has 10,000 members, declared a local state of emergency because of crime. Concerns include violence, crime, and public mischief.

“Members are expressing concerns daily about their safety and wellbeing,” the PBCN said in a news release while asking for more resources in areas like policing and the treatment of substance abuse.

Vidal said a request for more resources is a common theme in the letters he has been receiving as well. He noted he hand-delivered a batch of letters to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino several months ago. Then earlier this month, Vidal delivered another batch of letters.

“My appeal to the minister is simply please … take time to read some of these personal stories of people that are really struggling in some of the rural and northern communities,” said Vidal, who claims most of the letters are calling on governments to do more to solve the issues with crime.

“One of the very specific things that we’ve heard that seems to be a common thread is that there seems to be a consistent understaffing (of police). Another part of the problem is the distance officers have to travel to serve northern communities.”

On top of that, he said there is frustration that often offenders are charged and then released back into the community.

These concerns, according to Vidal, are all coming from across his constituency, which covers the northern half of the province.