According to an April 8 news release, the provincial government, in partnership with the RCMP, is “investing $3.3 million to expand Manitoba’s RCMP Emergency Response Team in rural and northern Manitoba.”
The funding was announced by Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who said in a statement that the new funding will “expand the team to full time and allow members to be deployed across the province day and night.”
The response team will now include nine regular RCMP members, bringing its total to 18 full-time officers.
“Their skills and training include rural tracking operations, addressing incidents involving armed persons, high-risk searches and arrests, and carrying out serious crime arrest warrants, along with other specialized training,” states the release.
Wiebe said his province will not let crime disrupt the lives of rural residents.
“By investing to expand the RCMP Emergency Response Team, police will have the resources they need to keep Manitobans safe, regardless of where you live in our province,” said Wiebe in a statement. “I’m pleased to work with the RCMP to get more boots on the ground to tackle these senseless crimes.”
According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba was one of three provinces with the highest rural crime rates in 2021. (Saskatchewan and Alberta were the other two.)
StatCan goes on to note that the rate of crime in Canada’s rural areas that year was 33 per cent higher than that in urban areas — and that gap was significantly higher when it came to violent crime.
When it came to violent crime, research found that this urban-rural gap had been widening for 10 years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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