City spending $175K to review BPS recruit training

The City of Brandon will spend $175,000 for a review of its police recruit training program, with hopes to eventually have the Manitoba government introduce provincial standards.

The evaluation, which will be completed by consulting firm MNP, will look at any gaps that might exist in Brandon’s police training in comparison to other agencies, and identify positives and negatives of the current model.

“We want to make sure the calibre of our training is the highest standard,” Brandon Police Service Chief Tyler Bates said at Monday’s council meeting about the two recruit training classes BPS runs each year.

Council voted 9-1 to award the contract, with only Coun. Shaun Cameron (Ward 4) voting against the motion.

BPS developed and implemented its own recruit training class in 2024, a council report stated. A second class was delivered last June, and BPS anticipates delivering one or two classes per year “for the foreseeable future,” the report said.

The Brandon and Winnipeg police services and the RCMP are the only law-enforcement agencies in Manitoba currently authorized to deliver recruit training, it said.

“This is sort of a process in terms of working towards a standardization of training and the affirmation that the processes and procedures are appropriate and in line with all standards,” city manager Dave Wardrop said during the meeting.

Bates said once the review is complete next April, BPS will have discussions with other Manitoba police chiefs in order to “arrive at a standard for the province.”

The training centres that will be compared include both municipal agencies and a provincial one, along with Saskatchewan’s provincial standards.

“There are a number of standards that are going to be looked at as far as that comparative analysis is concerned,” Bates said.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said Thursday that the province has been “actively reviewing” police training standards across Manitoba.

“We have been working in collaboration between different police services to find the right path forward to align our training, our standards and to ensure that Manitobans can have the highest confidence in police no matter where they live,” said Wiebe, the MLA for Concordia.

“We’re encouraged by this work that the BPS is taking on and we welcome the collaboration alongside the Brandon Police Service.”

Wiebe said whatever the province does bring forward would capture concerns and ideas from all policing agencies and diverse communities provincewide.

“I want to make sure we get it right,” the minister said.

Wiebe added that Manitobans should have “full confidence” in the police out in the field.

Finding efficiencies in how training is delivered, he said, is part of what the province is looking for during the consultations.

Bates said during Monday’s meeting that having the ability to share resources between agencies would be positive.

In an email to the Sun, he said the discussion around provincial standards is “aspirational at this juncture” and is “something to be further explored once a new BPS course training standard has been established through this evaluative process.”

Bates wasn’t made available for an interview on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett on Tuesday said BPS has been taking the lead on provincial standardization, and it has been a long-standing project.

“We want to make sure that we’re training to the highest standard, make sure we’re looking into things all the time and see how that plays out provincially at the end of the day. This could be a bit of a process,” Fawcett said, adding that it’s a discussion “that needs to start.”

Cameron said he voted against the motion on Monday because he didn’t believe it was an effective use of resources at this time.

“Knowing that there (is still) a need for a provincial strategy, I just sort of felt that the money was a little pre-emptive as far as us sort of going out on our own to look at creating a strategy ourselves. I just felt that it’s something that I think we need to have a bigger discussion with the province before we’re ready to move forward,” Cameron said.

“Actioning” the province, he said, would have been the way to go about it.

“I’m just fearful that we would do work that ultimately, at the end of the day, the province might deem that it wasn’t of value, or that it didn’t really align what a provincial strategy would look like,” Cameron said.

The council report said the review will start once the contract is awarded and last about 35 weeks.

To cover the cost, $97,000 will be taken from the 2026 budget and the balance will be budgeted for 2027, the council report stated.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) wasn’t at Monday’s meeting.

» alambert@brandonsun.com