News that Saskatoon has been named the second Centre of Responsibility in the province was not unexpected to the City of North Battleford's community safety co-ordinator.
Herb Sutton told council Monday that the news was "not a big surprise to me." Sutton was providing an update to council about his work.
The announcement means Saskatoon receives $475,000 from Corrections and Policing to go towards the COR. Saskatoon currently has a Hub in place to address public safety, similar to what is in place in North Battleford.
According to the province's news release Friday, "while the Hub provides immediate support to at-risk families, the COR will focus on long-term goals and initiatives. It will be staffed by a variety of human service experts who will analyze trends, measure and report on outcomes achieved by the Saskatoon Hub. This information will provide recommendations on how to better address crime and victimization in Saskatoon and across the province."
North Battleford officials had hoped North Battleford would have become the second COR, after Prince Albert, given that a well-established Hub is in place.
But it had been known for months by city officials that the City would not be receiving a COR. The news release Friday only confirmed it.
Despite that, Sutton believes North Battleford will be able to access resources from the CORs now in place in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.
Sutton says North Battleford Hub will be placed under the organization of one of those CORs, which will allow the City to access that organization's resources.
The big thing the COR does, explained Sutton, is their ability to analyze data and make suggestions.
If North Battleford was aligned with, for instance, the COR in Prince Albert, Sutton said they could "take our data and analyze in the same way they've been doing for the last three years in Prince Albert. And because they're trained analysts, they will be able to start looking more at correlations if they are there between work at the Hub table, crime reduction, all of the other things. And that would be helpful to us."
As for which organization North Battleford's Hub would prefer to be aligned with, Sutton said a request has been put in to the Building Partnerships to Reduce Crime to be put under the Prince Albert organization, due mainly to longstanding relationships with those involved in Prince Albert.
But if it happens to be Saskatoon, Sutton assured council said they would work closely with them as well.
