Ross River, Faro and Carcross got a nod from the territorial government and Yukon RCMP Tuesday with an announcement that Carcross will get a new detachment building.

Existing Ross River and Faro buildings, meanwhile, will undergo renovations.

It’s unclear exactly how soon that could happen, with the Carcross project very much in its early stages. There have already been a number of structural changes in the police’s operations as of earlier this year.

That’s according to Scott Sheppard, the Yukon RCMP’s chief superintendent. He explained that the police have already reduced the number of officers from six to five to serve the Faro and Ross River areas as of May/June of this year.

The two communities will now function as a single policing region, streamlining resources of the six workers to five – but there are still members living in both communities, Sheppard assured a media briefing.

“It was made very clear to us that they (the community) want that ongoing presence, so we’re not going to shy away from maintaining that,” he said.

Of the 13 detachments in the territory, most have three members each, but Faro has been the least busy over the last couple of years.

The consolidation of the Ross River and Faro areas means that the now-five members will work out of a hub detachment in Ross River and satellite site in Faro. With a total of 13 detachments in the territory, once the two are combined, there will be 12.

“There’s going to be an RCMP facility in Faro; it’s just more of a community policing base,” Coralee Reid, the Yukon RCMP’s director of strategic communications, said this morning.

That would mean one fewer official detachment. However, there would still be an RMCP presence there, even though the site may not offer the same services as other detachments (such as holding cells).

“One of the advantages of being a little bit more efficient is it freed up an additional member,” Sheppard said.

He was referring to a release that noted an officer has been and will continue to be deployed to the Haines Junction detachment to serve “the increased policing demands” in the Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay corridor.

The one member who was initially posted in the Ross River or Faro sites is not physically the same person who was transferred to the Haines Junction detachment to serve the Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay corridor. Rather, changing the operational structure freed up an extra resource for the force to deploy a member to the Haines Junction detachment around August.

Justice Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee echoed these statements.

“There’s been a long-standing demand for services at the desire to provide greater police presence in Burwash Landing and at the Destruction Bay corridor,” she noted.

“This additional member will also help address needs associated with greater highway enforcement and assist on initial responses associated with the international border.”

Sheppard noted the operations changes were a long time coming.

“It’s been a number of years that the community has made it known to me and the justice ministry that they felt policing needs could be better addressed by having more dedicated service,” he said. “So we’re responding to that.”

The force sometimes uses reserve officers on an “ad hoc basis,” he said, to service areas all over the territory.

While the timing of the year and locations vary, Reid confirmed that within the last couple of years, there have been reservists called in during the summer months to service the Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay area – showing the demand there has been high.

That’s in part why deploying an additional member to the Haines Junction detachment will prove useful.

“Not only was it not very effective, it was actually quite expensive,” Sheppard said of bringing in officers from outside of the territory. He likened the changes to helping the police achieve “certain economies of scale.”

As the new building for Carcross becomes a reality, he assured there would not be any plans to change the three officers who currently serve the community.

All RCMP detachments in the territory are serviced by three members each, with the exception of Watson Lake (nine), Dawson City (seven), Haines Junction (four) and Faro (two).

Sheppard referenced early estimates that showed the cost of the new detachment building and renovations to sit at about $11 million.

A spokesperson later confirmed that the approximate budget is $11.4 million over five years for the entire plan, which includes the Carcross site and renovations.

With a 70-30 split with the feds, that means the territory would pitch in about $7.9 million and Ottawa the remaining $3.5 million.

Megan Foreman, a communications analyst with the department, explained that was an “all-encompassing budget” that involved the renovations, new building and any minor ongoing upgrades needed at other detachments.

There is specific funding set aside in the policing budget for the Yukon for policing infrastructure, which is different from the capital funding linked to the RCMP’s capital plan.

As for the building itself, Sheppard expects consultations to frame the site’s location, size, design and appearance.

“It’s pretty much subject to community input,” he said of the meetings which are in the early days, as Reid noted that a number of people in the community are already aware changes are coming.

The department spokesperson, Foreman, confirmed that early conversations with the Carcross-Tagish First Nation and the community have already begun but there has been no timeline established for the planning of the Carcross project.

“Our members are called upon to do a lot of things, and only part of it is actually what we know as traditional policing,” Sheppard said.

“Faro in particular, the calls for service in that area are significantly lower than any other detachment in the Yukon,” he said, noting that’s over the last three years or so.

Reid confirmed this, adding that while the busiest detachment in the territory is Whitehorse, among the more rural areas it is Watson Lake (with nine members) that is busiest outside of the city. Among the sites serviced by three members, Carcross is the busiest.

The detachments of Ross River and Faro sit about an hour’s drive away from one another, with Sheppard guessing it can go as low as 35 to 40 minutes, depending on where exactly officers are responding from.

“The ability to have the two detachments that were reasonably close together was an excellent opportunity to introduce this alternative service delivery,” Sheppard said.

That timespan is also “pretty consistent with how this is being rolled out across the country,” he added.

Noting the distance covered is just over 70 kilometres, Reid added that “depending on the urgency of the call, police have the ability to get there quicker than a standard driver.”

The Faro detachment is the oldest at 46 years, with Ross River being a youthful 17 and Carcross listed at 37.

“It’s old enough that it needs to be replaced,” Sheppard smiled of the existing Carcross site.

“It’s how much use it’s received, how it’s weathered over the years, building materials – a variety of things.”

He pointed to the Whitehorse detachment centre, at 44 years old, on Fourth Avenue, one of the older sites in the territory, as a building in good condition.

“Despite its age, it kicks away and it’s pretty sound,” Sheppard said.

McPhee added that the slew of changes were part of the government’s larger capital plan with the Yukon RCMP, which will lay out investments involving the force into 2022.

“Yukoners should expect policing that is cost-effective and responsive to their needs,” she said. The plan is not finite and will be evolving, she added – perhaps hinting that there could be more investments to come down the line.

Officials hope to tender the work for the renovations to the Ross River and Faro buildings in this fiscal year, which will expire March 31, 2019.