Policing a concern for municipalities

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This article was published 23/11/2024 (515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several communities in Westman want policing to be the focus at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities meeting next week.

As communities across the province send representatives to Winnipeg to unite and request change starting Monday, several local municipalities in Westman have put an emphasis on crime. A list of concerns from some local municipalities includes stepping up consequences for crime and hiring more conservation officers.

The Municipality of Roblin is backing a resolution to “lobby the Province of Manitoba to implement stronger measures within the justice system that ensure offenders are held accountable for their actions,” as well as to “advocate for policies that prevent the early release of offenders, thereby ensuring that individuals who pose a threat to public safety are adequately rehabilitated and no longer pose a risk to the community.”

The resolution also includes to increase the consequences for people who violate release conditions. This is presented as a way to enhance public safety and ensure accountability in the justice system.

The Brandon Sun reached out Friday for comment from the head of council, Robert Misko, but did not hear back by end of day.

According to Statistics Canada, between 2010 and 2023 the crime severity index in Manitoba increased by 14 per cent, to 145.5. This represented a worsening trend of crime as the index is calculated “by accounting for both the amount of crime reported by police in a given jurisdiction and the relative seriousness of the crimes,” StatCan writes on its web page.

For provinces, Manitoba was second only to Saskatchewan on the severity index, with Saskatchewan posting 160.2. The areas were well above the national average for Canada, which had an index of 80.5 last year.

Further south, a resolution backed the municipalities of Grassland, Pipestone and Two Borders focused on requesting continued and expanded work of conservation officers to prevent illegal hunting.

The appeal that will be brought to Winnipeg next week and discussed includes lobbying the province to support conservation work, which the municipalities said have recently lead to a “huge decrease” in illegal night hunting as reported by rural residents.

Pipestone Reeve Archie McPherson told the Sun it was a very noticeable problem up until a few years ago.

“In the past, we’ve had a fair bit of night hunting going on … especially moose being shot without people getting permission from farmers. And in the early seasons for moose, people were unfortunately driving across crops and whatnot that weren’t harvested yet to retrieve an animal that was shot. That was creating a lot of problems.”

But the reeve said things have changed in recent history. While illegal hunting still happens, its a lot more under control now as enforcement stepped up and sent a message.

“There were some substantial fines levied, people that were caught, and so that has come under control somewhat in the past two or three years,” McPherson said. “I know two or three that ended up being caught, farmers reported them and had them identified, and they were charged. The word gets out pretty quick.”

The resolution backed by Pipestone for next week notes that recent efforts by the province have made a significant impact in reducing this activity. The practice is being cleaned up, as before it had “caused human death, killed and injured livestock, damaged property, crop damage and a general sense of fear in rural communities for decades prior to efforts in recent years by Manitoba to curb this illegal activity,” the resolution backed by the three municipalities wrote.

The communities are lobbying for continued enforcement including night helicopter surveillance and bulletins that show enforcement is happening so as to deter future criminals.

They also are asking the province to immediately approve the hiring of 25 new conservation officers, with some directed to southwest Manitoba. And, to increase links between RCMP and conservation officers to lead to better response times in rural areas, something they say has worked in Saskatchewan.

The meeting next week comes shortly after the province announced its Public Safety Strategy. The strategy put an emphasis on adding more money for municipal policing and cracking down on people who repeatedly violate release conditions.

The province also committed to help launch a police investigative unit in Swan River, a community which has suffered from drug trafficking and violent crime in recent years. This week, the new team of three investigative officers was announced with hopes that it would be staffed and operational in early 2025.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com