The Chief of the Saskatoon Police Service says $7.8 million in funding from the provincial Municipal Police Grants Program sets the Service up for growth but doesn’t guarantee it.
The provincial investment provides enough money to fund 54 positions, including three positions with the Police and Crisis Team, nine Crime Reduction Team members, two Saskatchewan Trafficking Response Team members, and ten Combined Traffic Safety Services members.
Police Chief Cam McBride explains that it has been significantly harder to recruit members in recent years, and filling the new positions supported by this funding will be no different.
“We’ve always had a really, really robust pool to draw from, and currently, we’re struggling. We need good, qualified applicants to apply for policing in Saskatchewan, and in Saskatoon in particular.”
He hopes some upcoming changes at the Saskatchewan Police College will help things along.
“The Saskatchewan Police College has really changed their approach with regard to service delivery 2026, so the number of seats has increased significantly.”
Back in June, McBride announced that the Service would not be able to meet 2025 staffing projections. McBride stated the SPS originally anticipated receiving 17 members from the July class at the Saskatchewan Police College but was since notified that it would only be getting eight. This left the Police Service 24 officers short of a full complement. The College then promised to allocate 34 seats to the Saskatoon Police Service in 2026 to make up for the loss.
The Chief also suspects the current state of crime in larger Saskatchewan cities may be deterring people from choosing policing as their career.
“Over the last many years, we’ve been learning how to do things more efficiently, how more with less, and we’ve become really good at that. But we’re at a position right now where we simply need to grow, and we need to stabilize that police-per-population number.” He explains that Saskatoon’s police officer-per-capita number has been slumping in recent years.
Despite these challenges, McBride remains optimistic.
“The minute we have the opportunity to hire. We have the budget for it. We have the capacity within our organizational chart to accommodate it, and as soon as the seat opens in College, we can capitalize on it.”
Recruiting provided, McBride says the SPS will be seeking to fill all new positions in 2026. The funding was made possible through a $22 million investment from SGI.
