SASKATOON — The City of Saskatoon, in partnership with the Saskatoon Police Service, the Saskatoon Fire Department, and Dr. Tarah Hodgkinson of Wilfrid Laurier University, have been awarded $200,000 in federal funding for a three-year Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
“All of our organizations and service providers are often serving the same individuals who receive supports throughout the community,” says Deputy Fire Chief Yvonne Raymer.
“Despite significant overlap, data sharing restrictions can prevent us from being able to share important information with each other, reduce service overlap, and coordinate our efforts to help people in the most effective way.”
Deputy Police Chief Darren Pringle says the project will help the city, police and fire work better together and with their partners.
“Data restriction can lead to inefficient service delivery, service duplication and interfere with efforts that could lead to more sustainable solutions that improve quality of life for people experiencing homelessness as well as the broader community.”
Meanwhile, this project continues a productive co-operation with Wilfrid Laurier University.
“This project builds on a 10-year relationship the City of Saskatoon has with Dr. Hodgkinson,” says Lesley Anderson, director of planning and development. “It also strengthens the co-ordinated community safety work among the city, police, and fire, who have been working together since 2022.”
The co-ordinated community safety work has been focused on improving data collection, planning, and communications to provide a more consistent approach in working with other community partners, orders of government and the Saskatoon public.
“This project in Saskatoon will be the first of its kind in Canada to support integrated and data-driven municipal approaches to the issues of community safety and homelessness,” says Dr. Hodgkinson.
“It has the potential to be transferable to other municipalities in Canada, to support secure and de-identified data-sharing, advance evidence-based crime prevention policies in other jurisdictions, and improve municipal service delivery across Canada.”
The project will also create essential long-term pathways for secure data sharing through a non-biased third party—Dr. Hodgkinson and the secure data centre located at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Centre for Research on Security Practices (CRSP).
— Submitted by City of Saskatoon
