Provincial Protective Services Branch gets green light

Saskatchewan is moving ahead with its plan to create a new Provincial Protective Services Branch.

It’s to have Conservation, Highway Patrol and Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods officers, inmate transport and court security deputy sheriffs, and community safety officers with the Provincial Capital Commission operating as parts of a single organization.

The PPS Branch will be under the umbrella of the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety.

Plans for the agency were laid out in the Throne Speech. The PPS Branch is to become fully operational in 2022-23.

“Creating the PPS Branch supports Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan goal of building safer communities by ensuring the protection of people, natural resources and infrastructure,” Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said in a media release.

“This change will allow provincial enforcement agencies to work as one team and will free up policing resources to focus on protecting Saskatchewan communities.”

The government said the branch will create greater collaboration among various provincial enforcement agencies and police, and will address jurisdictional issues that result from having different agencies with separate command structures.

As well, having provincial inmate transport and court security deputy sheriffs from the PPS Branch move inmates will allow the RCMP to focus on policing in the province.