Members from the Okanese First Nation along with officers of the File Hills First Nations Police Service gathered Friday for the grand opening of the new police station.

The opening of the new station was a major milestone for the detachment as the service is approaching their 25-year anniversary.

“We’ve been in service since the year 2000, so this is a big milestone for us,” said Cst. Kevin Swansburg with the File Hills First Nations Police Service.

Swansburg said development of the new building has been in the works since 2017. For many years, the detachment was being operated out of a wing at the health centre.

“Before, we used to work out of the medical centre and we never had our own cells, so that created some challenges for us because we would typically use RCMP cells out of Indian Head and Fort Qu’Appelle,” he explained.

“The cell blocks was definitely one of the big ones. It created some challenges because it created a lot of travel for us. We’re more localized and we won’t have to travel so far out of our communities.”

There are three cell blocks at the new facility that are used when people are brought in.

The police service serves about five different First Nation communities including Star Blanket Cree Nation, Okanese First Nation, Peepeekisis Cree Nation, Little Black Bear First Nation and Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation