ESTERHAZY — As with the majority of RCMP detachments across the country, Esterhazy could use a few recruits. Sgt. Meagan Stringfellow noted there are two vacant positions in the Esterhazy Detachment with no plan right now to fill those spaces.
The recent provincial government budget commitment of $4.5 million towards policing could help meet the need, but an increased presence locally will likely still be a few years away.
“That’s supposed to cover about 300 new positions in the province for training,” Sgt. Stringfellow said of the budget announcement. “So hopefully, the big push is going to be recruiting.”
She also told the town council that local recruitment presentations will be coming soon, reaching out to schools in Esterhazy and Langenburg.
The provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba have the greatest shortages of RCMP members, due in part to how recruiting at the national level operates. A side effect of how recruitment procedures in Ottawa are meant to attract more officers has seen the opposite trend for the prairie provinces.
“What they have done to attract people to come join the RCMP is they’re giving them an option of where they can be posted,” explained Sgt. Stringfellow. “What our CO is trying to do is try to get recruiting back to Saskatchewan. When we recruit our own people, we find that they want to come back to Saskatchewan.”
