The commercial vehicle enforcement unit in Saskatchewan is rebranding and expanding their roles.

It was announced yesterday by the Saskatchewan government that as of July 1 the group will become the Saskatchewan Highway Patrol and be able to help the RCMP with a variety of situations.

Fred Antunes, the deputy minister of highways and infrastructure for the Saskatchewan government, said the changes were made to try and combat the public's concern around a lacking police presence in rural areas.

"The government looked and said we have a number of people in the policing role," he said. "There are peace officers, there's a number officer's that are at the Saskatchewan environment - the conservation officers, and then the commercial vehicle enforcement unit. Adding that to the existing complement of RCMP officers around the province as well as some of the municipal police forces creates a very large team."

The primary focus of the new unit will still be commercial vehicle enforcement but the 25 officers have recently gone through training to help the RCMP with a large sum of tasks (respond to 911 calls, investigating impaired drivers, enforcing speed limits and other traffic violations, taking action when someone is found committing an offence, responding to motor vehicle accidents, and investigating vehicles hauling livestock to ensure the health and welfare of the animals).

"Our officers didn't have sidearms until now so we had more training to do," Antunes said. "As we went through and completed the training to get our officers to the same level of training as you would see from the Regina Police Service or the Saskatoon Police Service... and as of July 1 our existing force will be trained and ready to take on those new duties."

According to Antunes, they will be actively recruiting 25 more Saskatchewan Highway Patrol officers for the next set of training that begins in August.