SaskatchewanGraffiti and the trafficking of stolen property have now been added to the list of activities the province’s SCAN units can address. Tweaks to existing legislation go into effect Nov. 1Alexander Quon · CBC News · Posted: Nov 01, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesSaskatchewan is beefing up its legislation meant to deal with nuisance properties. (Nicholas Frew/CBC)Saskatchewan has provided officers that enforce the province’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act with further powers — allowing them to target grafitti and the trafficking of stolen property. Those features are now part of the list of activities that Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) officers can use to deal with nuisance properties in Saskatchewan. Tim McLeod, the minister of corrections, policing and public safety, told media in October that the changes came directly from conversations with police and community leaders, who have concerns about how neighbourhoods are being affected by certain properties. “[These are] properties that are unsafe in a community, maybe where trafficking of stolen goods may be happening, excessive graffiti, really the properties that are creating unsafe neighborhoods,” McLeod said. The changes will give SCAN officers, which operate out of offices in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, more ability to “directly deal” with those properties, McLeod said. SCAN officers will continue to operate with their current mandate of responding to public complaints about buildings regularly involved in illegal activities, the province said.The larger goal of SCAN has always been to address issues like vandalism, squatting and drug use, McLeod said. Local police often deal with properties unfit to be lived in, but McLeod said SCAN is not meant to compete with other municipal or legal authorities already working to improve the conditions of a property.Instead, the new changes will only be used where nuisance properties are not already being addressed, he said. SCAN will pay special attention to cases where the property itself is a threat to the neighbourhood’s safety. When a building is rehabilitated, the property owner will be responsible for covering the related costs. Officers can also apply to have the property’s title transferred to the government, allowing them to seize or demolish the building if necessary. The changes to SCAN come into effect on Saturday. ABOUT THE AUTHORAlexander Quon is the provincial affairs reporter for CBC Saskatchewan. He has been a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan since 2021 and is happy to be working in his hometown of Regina after half a decade in Atlantic Canada. He has previously worked with the CBC News investigative unit in Nova Scotia and Global News in Halifax. Alexander specializes in freedom of information requests and data reporting. He can be reached at: alexander.quon@cbc.ca. FacebookTwitter
Saskatchewan expands power of SCAN unit to help address nuisance properties
