The Village of Loon Lake is readying itself for what the future may hold when it comes to crime and vandalism throughout the community. Last Wednesday (Jan. 15), the Loon Lake RCMP hosted a follow-up town hall at the Loon Lake Recreation Centre. The purpose of this gathering was to update residents from Loon Lake, as well as the surrounding communities of Makwa Lake Resort, Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation and Ministikwan Lake Cree Nation about the local crime situation and efforts that can be taken to address such concerns going forward. “The chaos has depleted substantially, but we will wait until the spring to see if it happens again,” remarked Loon Lake mayor Brian Hirschfeld. “It is winter, and things generally calm down because of the weather. The vandalism, however, has definitely slowed way down in town. I can’t speak for the other communities. There were a lot of stats brought up at the recent meeting, but there is still a lot of issues on Makwa Sahgaiehcan and out at Ministikwan. But, in town, it has slowed down somewhat.”

Last summer, Hirschfeld turned to the media to help spread word about what his community was experiencing. This included a rash of break-ins and vandalism beyond normal levels, while, in late September, St. George’s Anglican Church in Loon Lake – which was built in 1939 – burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances. “After the church fire, the RCMP brought in extra people and it (crime) really began to slow down,” Hirschfeld added.

During last week’s meeting, the mayor added, there were two main areas the RCMP addressed. “The first was something called a community consultative group,” Hirschfeld noted. “We were actually trying to organize one among us, Makwa Lake Resort and the reserves, but, in the meantime, everyone has created their own groups. But, we’re still going to attempt to bring all four together and come up with some ideas and plans to help the police. It will be a great way of determining what our main concerns are and what needs to be addressed.” The second topic discussed at the meeting involved ongoing efforts to resurrect a Citizens on Patrol program in Loon Lake and area. “We had a Citizens on Patrol program years ago, but it started to dwindle away and we eventually ran out of people,” Hirschfeld said. “There’s a guy trying to take this on now with the cooperation of the RCMP of course.” Also in attendance for last week’s meeting were representatives from the Provincial Protective Services. “They spoke about the community safety officer program,” Hirschfeld said. “CSOs are glorified bylaw officers – they just have a little more power than a traditional bylaw officer. That’s something else we are looking into, but we are a small town and our budget can’t take on something like this. Startup for one of these officers is about $200,000… We would need to band together with the reserves. That would be our only alternative, so we will be looking into this in the future.”

In spite of these efforts, however, Hirschfeld said he remains concerned the level of crime and vandalism in Look Lake could amp up again when the weather grows warmer. “Definitely,” he said. “It’s the natural thing. The weather is going to change, school is going to get out and kids are going to be running around again. Whether they take to the vandalism again, I don’t know. I hope not, but, for lack of a better term, we are bracing for it. I really like the concept of the CSO program. Anything that will help the RCMP will be beneficial.” Hirschfeld went on to say numbers shared by the police last week were astounding. “For the last quarter of 2024 they were probably averaging about 10 calls a day per officer,” he said. “I was floored by the numbers. How can they even keep up? But, the RCMP is fully staffed now… We also support the Saskatchewan Marshal’s Service. We wanted an office here, but that’s not going to happen. There may be one in Meadow Lake, Battleford or Lloydminster, so it will be close and they will help out where they can. Things, at least, are looking way better than they were last summer.”

In closing, Hirschfeld expressed his gratitude to the support he and his community have received since news broke of the escalated crime levels. “The media has been a great help, as has Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River MP Gary Vidal,” he said. “I’m in touch with him every couple of weeks about what’s going on and I am sure I will be in touch with him again in the next few days because his right-hand man was at the meeting. It’s those types of people who have been awesome help.” In December, a 25-year-old resident of the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation was arrested and charged in connection to the September church fire.