RCMP say they have recently increased the number of members stationed at some NWT detachments.
In Fort Smith, Sgt Cagri Yilmaz informed residents about the decision to create new positions locally – and within Hay River’s detachment – during a presentation in the community last week.
Officers had previously told Fort Smith’s council staffing shortages were a challenge. In April, Cpl Jason Doucet said three of the eight positions within the town’s detachment at the time were vacant.
This week, RCMP confirmed to Cabin Radio that two extra positions were added to each of Fort Smith and Hay River’s detachments this year. The total number of positions – excluding public servant support staff – is now 10 in Fort Smith and 13 in Hay River.
More broadly, RCMP spokesperson Cst Josh Seaward said positions had been added “across the territory” in part using funding from the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, which is paid for jointly by the federal and territorial governments. Seaward said that program was “boosting numbers while increasing our ability to provide more culturally responsive police services.”
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Positions were also added through a new territorial crime reduction unit, which was proposed in this year’s budget. That team, Seaward said, features six people “whose purpose is to deploy to assist local detachments in addressing specific types of investigations, most notably drug trafficking.”
Meanwhile, RCMP in the NWT are growing their emergency response team, which the national RCMP website says uses “tactics, specialized weapons and equipment to resolve high-risk situations.”
Seaward said the territory’s RCMP had “added several full-time emergency response team positions to bolster those numbers to five,” with a goal of having nine people employed full-time on that team by 2026. (Currently, he said, part-time members of the team respond to “fill any gaps as required.”)
