PCs call for crackdown on property crime

A Progressive Conservative government would open a Crown prosecutor’s office dedicated to dealing with property crime.

Interim party leader Konrad Narth made the announcement Wednesday flanked by colleagues in front of a boarded up 7-Eleven on Main Street. Narth promised to hire 25 prosecutors who would focus on property theft, which he said is the type of crime attorneys have been inundated with in recent years.

Narth said crime has increased under the NDP government and pledged to crack down on thieves in Winnipeg and rural areas, if the PCs win power in the next provincial election, due on or before Oct. 5, 2027.

“Under this premier, Manitoba’s crime rate is 81 per cent above the national average. Property crime represents 58 per cent of crimes committed, an increase of nearly 25 per cent since Wab Kinew and the NDP took office,” Narth said, citing numbers from Statistics Canada. “In Winnipeg, the rise of property crime has significantly increased the cost of doing business and forced many businesses to now close their doors.”

Overwhelming caseloads have led to burnout and attorneys fleeing the province for jobs elsewhere in Western Canada, said the Opposition party’s justice critic, Wayne Balcaen.

Citing reports the province underspent its justice budget by $34 million last year, the Brandon MLA said the unused funds could have been allocated to a property crime unit within the Crown attorney’s office.

“This unit will allow for property and retail crimes to be dealt with without removing any capacity for prosecuting the more serious offenses that are happening here under this Kinew government,” Balcaen said outside the former 7-Eleven, one of multiple locations to close its doors in Winnipeg in recent years amid crime, shoplifting and raising food prices.

The party was scant on details about how the province would attract prosecutors when it is presently struggling with meeting current needs.

“I don’t want to talk specifically about what’s going to be solved there because that is a government issue right now. However, adding capacity is going to make the place more inviting, and it’s going to add that sense of belonging,” Balcaen said.

Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys vice-president of prosecutions Ben Wickstrom said all areas of the justice system are overwhelmed, and more help is needed across the board.

The association, which represents Crown attorneys in Manitoba, filed a grievance with the province in 2023 that cited “dangerously heavy” workloads. It said more prosecutors were needed as was better pay.

The arbitration hearing for the grievance is scheduled for November.

Fifty new prosecutors, hired over time, would fill the need, Wickstrom said.

He also questioned the government’s own math on how many attorneys it had hired.

After question period Wednesday, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the province has added 30 net new attorneys since the NDP came into power in 2023, totalling 62 Crown attorneys hired by the province.

Wiebe criticized the PC party of contributing to the vacancies at the Crown’s office when in power. Wiebe said the NDP government has taken a different approach.

“We have open dialog with the Crown attorneys association,” Wiebe told reporters.

Wickstrom said no new positions have been added to the Crown attorneys’ office since the NDP formed government in 2023.

“They may have filled vacancies, but that’s what it is. They filled vacancies that already existed,” he said.

Wickstrom said one-third of this year’s underspent justice budget would cover the salaries of 50 new prosecutors. He said that would be an ongoing expense but is the price to pay in order to keep the justice system functioning.

Narth, who became interim leader of the Tories on Sept. 26 after Obby Khan stepped down, said the announcement was the first of many, but stopped short of calling it a campaign promise.

“We are we are showing Manitobans that that we are listening,” he said.

nicole.buffie@winnipegfreepress.com