Sask. government hires 1st marshal service chief

The Saskatchewan government has hired a chief to oversee the province's marshal service.

Robert Cameron, who has decades of policing experience, is to be the chief marshal.

The government says Cameron will be responsible for developing the service before it starts operating in 2026.

Cameron is to be in charge of about 70 officers, who are to enforce the law and assist RCMP in investigations.

The government says the service's mandate is to detect, disrupt and deter criminal activity in rural and remote areas with high crime rates.

It is also to locate and arrest prolific high-risk offenders and help in investigations that deal with property theft in rural areas.

"We are confident, based on the breadth of his experience and his in-depth understanding of provincial and municipal policing, that Mr. Cameron is the best candidate to lead the Saskatchewan Marshals Service forward," Policing Minister Paul Merriman said Wednesday in a news release.

Cameron graduated with a law and security administration diploma in 1987 from Confederation College in Ontario.

He started his career as a peace officer with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources, and then moved to the RCMP, where his duties included aiding with investigations.

Cameron retired as a Mountie in 2018 and joined the Saskatchewan's policing ministry as the executive director of policing. In 2019, the province appointed him as the assistant deputy minister for policing and community safety services.

The Opposition NDP issued a statement from its corrections and policing critic, Nicole Sarauer, in which she expressed skepticism about Cameron's appointment.

In the statement, Sarauer questioned how many people were interested in the chief marshal position if its being filled by a bureaucrat, and how independent the marshal service would be from Merriman.

Boosting the number of Saskatchewan RCMP officers and treatment spaces for mental health and addictions would be a better use of money and more immediately address public safety concerns, Sarauer said in the statement.