Saskatoon continues to be among the country’s leaders when it comes to crime.
On Monday, Statistics Canada reported the crime rate in Saskatoon rose to 8,942 incidents per 100,000 people, an increase of six per cent from 2015 to 2016.
READ MORE: Regina leads the country in total crime rate
It was the second highest rate among Canadian cities, trailing only Regina.
The two Saskatchewan cities have also had the highest crime severity indexes (CSI) since 2010.
The CSI, which measures the volume and severity of crime, increased one per cent nation-wide to 70.1 in 2016 from the previous year. Saskatoon’s CIS increased by five per cent to 117.8.
Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill said the numbers aren’t a surprise and an increase in meth use – as well as poverty, poor housing and racism – are to blame.
“We’ve got to certainly start to work on some of these social conditions and I think the public has to start to realize that we have a situation here and a reality in the Prairie provinces,” he said.
“We have to work on that and we have to put money into housing, we have to put money into jobs, we have to put money into education and we’ve got to make sure that we level the playing field for everybody in the province.”
READ MORE: ‘They really do feel like they have no alternative’: Saskatoon youth gang violence
According to the report, Saskatchewan continues to have the highest overall CSI and crime rate among the provinces.
With files from Global’s Joel Senick