Sask. police oversight body, due in fall, still in hiring mode: minister

The Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) that will take over the investigation of Saskatchewan police incidents involving death or serious injury is still expected to launch before the end of the year, Saskatchewan's minister of justice says.

The province had said the team would be up and running this fall.

On Monday, Justice Minister Gord Wyant said SIRT's executive director, Gregory Gudelot, who was appointed to lead the team in June, was in the process of interviewing candidates for the team's initial roster of two investigators.

More investigators may be hired depending on SIRT's future workload, Wyant said.

"It's very important that we get the right investigators in place with the right credentials and the right experience to do [these] very complex investigations," Wyant said. 

Wyant was asked about SIRT's status in the wake of three people recently dying while in the custody of the Prince Albert Police Service.

Since SIRT has not launched yet, those deaths will be investigated by the prevailing Public Complaints Commission (PCC), which has struggled for years with a backlog of cases and been criticized for a lack of transparency.

Unlike the current process for the PCC, summary reports on the investigations conducted by SIRT will be publicly released within three months of an investigation being completed.

SIRT will also ensure a community liaison of First Nations or Métis ancestry is appointed if the victim is Indigenous, the government has said. Families of Indigenous people who have died in Saskatchewan police encounters have led the call for an independent agency to investigate police conduct in the province. 

"We're hoping very, very quickly because we know how important it is," Wyant said of SIRT's expected launch. 

"It was one of the recommendations that came out of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry and certainly conversations before that were leading us in this direction."