With the passing of Bill 208 in November of 2016, February 1st, 2017 served as the very first day of recognition ever for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province. Emerson's Fort Dufferin site just north of the US/Canadian border played a very important and key role in the establishment of the RCMP, and is now a historical site run and maintained by a group of volunteers called The Post Road Heritage Group.

"As citizens we are very proud and pleased for this day of recognition, and the fact that the RCMP got their start at our little fort is just icing on the cake," said Secretary of Post Road Heritage Group, Craig Mackie.

The Province of Manitoba had just been built and had taken on the North West Territories from The Hudson Bay Company, which today would be Alberta and Saskatchewan. Realizing that the province had no law and order at the time, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and the Canadian Government knew it was necessary to protect Canadian sovereignty and to populate the new area connecting Canada from coast to coast.

Law enforcement was needed to keep the peace with the growing number of settlers and First Nations communities popping up. So in 1873 the North West Mounted Police or (NWMP) was made. In 1874 a group of fifty NWMP from six different divisions came together at Emerson's Fort Dufferin and on July 8th of that year set out on The Great March West, which directly led to the settlement of Western Canada.

In 1919 the NWMP were merged with the Dominion City police and renamed the Royal Canadian Police on February 1st of 1920. Today The RCMP has nearly 1,100 officers and more than 400 other employees in Manitoba.

"The Post Road Heritage Group will celebrate the day personally in the future and has no plans on holding any special events at the site on this day. February 1st is historically a snowy period and the site is not often accessible at this time of year. We are currently developing a interpretive centre at the site that will include a exhibit based on the NWMP, it does serve as quite a main attraction for the fort," said Mackie.

Mackie went on to say that the interpretive centre grand opening is scheduled for June 4th. The exhibit is expected to be ready for this event, however Mackie noted possible flood conditions in the spring could impact the groups timeline.