The data from Statistics Canada identifies the Northern crime rate as being a staggering 85 incidents for every 100 people.
“People don’t feel safe in their own communities — people are begging the Sask. Party for help and nothing happens,” said Jordan McPhail, Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs.
“The crime rate isn’t just numbers posted on a spreadsheet. Each number and decimal point represents someone’s son or daughter whose life is being taken or wh has been harmed while this government pats itself on the back and holds yet another empty photo op.”
Earlier this week, McPhail and Community Safety Shadow Minister Nicole Sarauer wrote to Scott Moe and Community Safety Minister Michael Weger demanding urgent action to address the public safety crisis in the Northern community of Pelican Narrows.
Part of that letter reads: “For years, community leaders, residents and frontline responders have raised alarm bells about rising violence, organized criminal activity and serious public safety concerns in Pelican Narrows. For years, those warnings have been ignored.
Today, the consequences of that neglect are impossible to ignore.
We have been made aware of Molotov cocktails being thrown at homes, multiple shootings, repeated bear spray attacks and a growing climate of fear that is making people feel unsafe in their own community.
Just last week, 26-year-old Jaden Custer lost his life in what community leaders have described as an alleged drive-by shooting involving an individual operating an ATV.
This is not normal. It is not acceptable. And it is a direct indictment of a provincial government that has failed to provide communities like Pelican Narrows with the resources, supports and attention they deserve.”
Pelican Narrows declared a state of emergency from late 2022, lasting into the following year. Another was declared in 2024 — and the Chief pleaded for help from the provincial and federal governments.
Overall, the data released by Statistics Canada Tuesday found the rate of crime has shot up 51 per cent provincewide since 2014. Saskatchewan has the highest rate of severe crime in the country and growth in that crime rate is outpacing every other province and territory.
Northern communities in Saskatchewan have the worst rate of common assault of any rural in Canada and the highest rate of non-violent weapon offences.
“Communities in the north are tired of being news headlines for gun crimes,” McPhail said. “We need real safety measures and supports for northern communities, not a disastrous government led by a Premier who spent three times the amount in his bad news budget on servicing his debt than on funding the desperate need for more law enforcement resources.
“We used to be a place where people kept their doors unlocked – unfortunately that reality has become a myth for people in the North.”
“It’s time for change.”
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