Province unveils public safety strategy

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This article was published 15/11/2024 (318 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new public safety strategy unveiled by the Manitoba NDP government on Thursday includes several initiatives aimed at improving policing and safety in rural Manitoba, but a government critic says the province failed to include deadlines for the strategy’s implementation.

Among the many new initiatives announced yesterday, the NDP are making good on an election promise by bringing forward a plan to build a new Centre for Justice in Dauphin that will include “culturally appropriate supports, educational resources and vocational training.”

While Justice Minister Matt Wiebe could not give a specific timeline for the construction of the Dauphin facility, he told the Sun that the government is moving forward as quickly as possible, while bringing along project partners in the process, including the Manitoba Métis Federation and Indigenous communities.

“We really see a lot of potential in the centre, you know,” Wiebe said. “We talk in the strategy about … vocational opportunities, mental health supports, really talking about it as a Centre for Justice, rather than sort of the old way we thought about corrections facilities. This is about giving people, if they want to make the right choices and get on a better path, giving them that opportunity.”

That effort, Wiebe said, is precisely why they’re trying not to rush the process, using the Dauphin project as an opportunity to get it right from the start, even if that means moving the ball down the road a bit.

“We’re definitely committed to getting it done as soon as possible.”

In August 2023, Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak told the Sun that he would welcome the possibility of a new facility, saying that the closure by the former Progressive Conservative government of that city’s correctional centre in 2020 had impacted the ability of RCMP officers to address crime in the community because they needed to spend more time transporting people who have been arrested to Brandon or Winnipeg.

Wiebe said the province has heard similar concerns, and believes the province can do more to support law enforcement to get back to the kind of work that police forces want to be doing in the communities they serve.

“They want to have the ability to have a larger impact,” Wiebe said.

At a news conference earlier in the day that announced the province’s new public safety strategy, Wiebe also spoke to the Kinew governments plan to make Winnipeg’s retail theft initiative permanent by funding 12 new city police positions. The Justice minister had signalled late last month that the government was considering making the anti-shoplifting program permanent.

The initiative focuses on the Exchange District, Osborne Village and West End to curb thefts and prevent violence. Provincial funding for it has been extended several times since it launched in June.

Other strategy initiatives include a two per cent increase in funding for municipal law enforcement, expanding the electronic monitoring program outside of Winnipeg, strengthening impaired driving legislation and enhancing protection-order enforcement in rural areas.

The extra enforcement funding will be welcomed by rural municipalities, said Association of Manitoba Municipalities interim president Kathy Valentino.

“That type of predictable, sustainable funding is going to empower our municipalities,” Valentino said, adding that the AMM was pleased overall with the initiatives announced. “I mean, we’re always advocating and lobbying for more funding for municipalities, so that’s definitely something that we were asking for. And public safety in the rise of crime is our number-one issue that we’re hearing from our membership across the province.”

Outside of Winnipeg, Wiebe said there are currently no other jurisdictions in the province that use electronic monitoring such as ankle bracelet GPS tracking. With this initiative, Wiebe said Brandon would be an ideal location to expand the program.

“The direction that we would be giving now is that this would be employed in other communities, and Brandon, I would suggest to be a prime candidate,” Wiebe said. “You have a police force that is very effective, so if there were any situations where they needed to respond, they’re ready to go. And we’ve got a lot of confidence in their work, so it would be a great community to see this roll out.”

Wiebe also said this kind of technology would be vital when it comes to enhancing protection-order enforcement, particularly in rural areas. Just last August, for example, a woman in McCreary who had obtained a protection order against her former partner several months earlier was forced to hide in the nearby woods for 11 hours to escape the man when he turned violent. He would eventually kill her parents and brother before taking his own life, in what RCMP had called a “horrific act of intimate partner violence.”

“It’s another step in rolling this program out, and I think it’s going to be an important one, if we know it’s going to have a big impact, especially in cases like we saw where we saw tragedies over the last number of months.”

The new public safety strategy also included increased funding and training opportunities for First Nations police officers and safety officer programs, hiring 100 new mental-health workers to work alongside first responders (starting with 25 workers by the end of March next year) and holding a youth summit.

When reached by phone late Thursday afternoon, PC justice critic Wayne Balcaen described the new public safety strategy as a lot of talk, but “not a lot of action.”

Balcaen alluded to a July 2023 announcement by then-premier Heather Stefanson that promised $10 million over two years in downtown Winnipeg safety measures that would have provided the provincial capital with 24 additional officers.

“Not only are the NDP trying to get credit for what was a PC initiative, but where are the other 12 (officers)?” Balcaen said.

He gave some backhanded credit to the NDP for carrying on several other PC policies, stating that the NDP have recognized how well they worked. But he said there was far too little by way of useful initiatives for communities in rural Manitoba — including Brandon — and noted the province failed to state when their initiatives would be completed.

“They didn’t time-stamp anything,” Balcaen said. “They had no measurables in place. There’s nothing here. Just a lot of fluff.”

With retail crime exploding in Manitoba, and businesses shutting down as a result of invasions and theft, he said he expected the province to do more for its citizens.

“We need better outcomes for Manitobans when it comes to crime.”

The public safety strategy was crafted after consultations with stakeholders, including a summit that featured representatives from 210 community groups.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press and the Winnipeg Free Press

» Bluesky: @mattgoerzen.bsky.social