BRANDON — The Manitoba government will give the City of Brandon $100,000 to improve public safety downtown.
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe announced the funding at a Keystone Centre event Thursday, on the heels of his government’s decision to give Winnipeg $1.5 million for downtown public safety efforts.
On Friday, Wiebe gave the Brandon Police Service $270,000 from the criminal property forfeiture fund to buy equipment for officers and support community initiatives.
In an interview with the Brandon Sun, Wiebe said the $100,000 was provided to the city after it expressed interest in Winnipeg’s Downtown Community Safety Partnership program.
“In this case, the mayor and the city have been very clear that they’re interested in this model,” Wiebe said. “They brought it up with us and they want to pursue it, so we’re stepping up to support them.”
The Winnipeg program aims to improve downtown safety by offering after-hours courtesy walks for community members, well-being checks on homeless people and voluntary transport to shelters.
Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city will meet with various community groups to figure out the model for its program, such as expanding the Bear Clan or the police-run community cadets program.
“Originally, of course, our discussions were around the Downtown Community Safety Partnership in Winnipeg, but as we dug into it further, we realized, OK, we’re not exactly the same,” he said. “This isn’t a cut-and-paste model for lots of different reasons. And the government also realizes that.”
Progressive Conservative justice critic Wayne Balcaen, the MLA for Brandon West, said he was “perplexed” by the government only providing $100,000 and noted that the previous PC government provided Winnipeg’s downtown safety program with its initial funding.
“The NDP has stated that they’re going to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, but I haven’t seen any action on that,” Balcaen said. “There is no plan. Anything that I have seen has been piecemeal announcements and Band-Aid solutions (and) no long-term plan.”
The Brandon Police Service will spend the $270,000 on its organized crime unit and mental health supports for officers. It will also buy handheld drug-testing devices, medical equipment and ballistic blankets.
Interim Chief Randy Lewis said the drug-testing devices will contribute to officer safety as they can test and identify drugs in the field. Test results will still need to be conducted in a lab for court purposes.
Lewis said the ballistic blankets will improve officer safety as the BPS responds to firearm calls “many times a year.”
Brandon University sociology Prof. Christopher Schneider said the expenditures will not reduce crime.
“This money would be better spent investing in services that we know empirically lead to reductions in crime,” he said. “That would be services that help victims of crime, affordable housing for people, education (and) rehabilitation services.”
— Brandon Sun