Manitoba’s justice minister is reaching out to his federal counterparts in Ottawa for help with a shortage of RCMP officers in the province.
Kelvin Goertzen says the policing situation in rural Manitoba is becoming an increasing public concern, and that in addition to current staffing shortages, there won’t be enough new recruits to fill the void left by RCMP officers who plan to retire over the next few years.
Currently, he said, 18 per cent of Mountie positions in Manitoba are vacant, and one of the issues that led to Manitoba’s current tough spot is that the primary training centre for Mounties in Regina was closed for most of the pandemic.
Goertzen told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that it’s not about pointing blame, it’s about coming up with a strategy to get police numbers back up.
“I’ve written to Minister (Marco) Medicino, he’s the public safety minister in Ottawa, to say, ‘I know there are challenges, it’s not all your fault, but there needs to be a plan in terms of how these vacancies are filled.'”
Goertzen said the impact of reduced police resources can have a negative effect on both the residents in understaffed regions and the officers themselves.
And while violence is a concern, just catching up on the day-to-day offences can be difficult with a lack of bodies to do the work.
“In rural and northern Manitoba, violent crime is a particular issue, but probably what I hear most out of rural Manitoba — which is different, maybe, than the city of Winnipeg — is more about property crime.
“There aren’t responses to property crimes…. People aren’t getting that sort of followup.”
Colleen Smook, mayor of Thompson, Man., told 680 CJOB crime is on the rise in her northern Manitoba city, despite a steady RCMP presence in the community — and that the issue isn’t due to a staff shortage as much as a lack experienced officers in the field.
“We’re one of the very lucky ones — we got a lot of the recruits out the depot,” Smook said, “and in the last year or so, we’ve managed to keep our numbers up.
“Our issue is, it’s all young recruits — our commanding officer positions are very lacking, and they’re stretched very thin in that area.”
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