St. Pierre RCMP Detachment will see a staff change by the end of January.

Staff Sergeant Ron Poirier says he graduated from RCMP training in Regina in April 1992 and was then posted to Vancouver Island working in Ladysmith, Nanaimo and Duncan, British Columbia between 1992 and 1999. He then came back to Manitoba and spent four years in Steinbach as a Constable and then promoted to a Corporal and transferred to St. Pierre in 2003. From there Poirier notes he moved to Head Quarters in the Criminal Operations unit and spent about seven months there before being promoted to a Planning Analyst in the Client Services unit. After an approximate year and a half he was promoted in 2008 into the Staff Sergeant position which he currently holds in St. Pierre and has been there for the last eight years.

Poirier explains he will be returning to Head Quarters working as the Senior Planning Analyst in the Operational Strategy Branch, which used to be named the Client Services unit. He says the unit is responsible for developing strategies for delivering policing services across Manitoba and they develop new ways to try and better those services.

"I've loved being in St. Pierre," notes Poirier. "For me, there's a lot of personal tie here as it's home. It was born and raised here. So a lot of the connections and networks were easy to establish. We police 13 communities here and I think having a knowledge of the local area has been a huge benefit. So I've been fortunate to be able to come home, in a sense, and fit right in with the existing community. Also really fortunate that I've been welcomed."

Poirier says for an officer of his rank there are only certain positions available. He notes this new position will be a good match because it fits well with the way he likes to work and function. "It's longer term planning and it's about sustainable police servicing. It's not a knee-jerk reaction to a problem. We're really putting a plan together to improve what we're doing."

He adds there are a couple challenges he foresees in this new position, number one being to get himself back up-to-speed with the latest negotiations after being away from the unit for eight years. He says when you deliver policing services, human resources is always the biggest pressure they face and that will be the other challenge. 

"I think that's where the fun in the challenge is. How can we do better with what we have? It's all about gaining efficiency and not just doing what we've always done in the past and saying that's good enough," notes Poirier. "I don't think it's ever good enough. So that's where some of the challenges are. How do we do better with what we have? That being said, there's lots of room to sort of innovate and bring up fresh ideas that policing hasn't seen before. I look forward to that."

Sergeant Rheal Gravel has worked as a Corporal for Poirier in the past at the St. Pierre Detachment and Poirier says Gravel will be coming out of a Human Resource staffing position at Head Quarters and taking over the Staff Sergeant position in St. Pierre. Poirier notes Gravel brings familiarity to the area and he looks forward to seeing him do well in that position.

Poirier thanks all the people he's worked with in St. Pierre. He says you can't accomplish anything without really good people working with you adding he's fortunate for the tremendous staff he's been able to work with over the years.