The province’s decision to roll out an electronic monitoring program for suspects on bail — but only in Winnipeg — has drawn the ire of former Brandon police chief Wayne Balcaen.
“I am very concerned about everything being Winnipeg-centric — there’s more to Manitoba than just Winnipeg,” Balcaen, the MLA for Brandon West and Tory justice critic, told reporters during a Zoom call Wednesday afternoon.
Balcaen said he understood that Winnipeg is the province’s capital city and has the largest population base, but outside of the Perimeter Highway, he said, “there is the rest of Manitoba that I think is feeling neglected.”
The new program, which will see certain bailed suspects monitored 24-7 with GPS-equipped ankle bracelets, was announced by Justice Minister Matt Wiebe earlier in the day.
The province has earmarked $2.9 million for the program over two years. The minister said the province has 100 electronic monitoring devices available, but that it can expand up to 200. The program is expected to launch by Aug. 19.
“We’re starting in Winnipeg, but we have started discussions already in terms of capacity to roll this out across the province,” Wiebe said at a press conference.
The program aims to target “chronic reoffenders” who repeatedly breach their bail conditions, he said.
“Those chronic reoffenders — if these crimes are left unchecked, (they can) sometimes elevate to more serious crimes,” he said. “If we can use these kinds of technologies to break the cycle, to give people an opportunity to meet their bail conditions and ultimately keep our community safer — that’s what it’s about.”
Balcaen called the ankle-monitoring bracelets an essential tool for law enforcement but criticized the NDP government for funding the program only in Winnipeg, noting that earlier this year, the province extended funding for its Winnipeg retail theft initiative.
“And this is just another example — the other one was the retail crime that they funded $1 million to Winnipeg, nothing outside of that area,” he said. “And these sorts of crimes happen outside of Winnipeg, too.”
Brandon Police Service acting chief Randy Lewis did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment.
The device the province selected uses voice, audio and vibration commands to communicate with the alleged offenders outfitted with them, as well as loud alerts if the person enters a location they’re barred from attending.
The device will be able to notify law enforcement of its location in real time.
Wiebe said the courts will decide which alleged offenders will be selected for the program when being granted bail.
He noted people accused of certain offences — including murder, assaults with firearms and aggravated sexual assaults — won’t be eligible for the program if released because they’re already subject to particularly robust monitoring in the community.
The Sun reached out to the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba, but the association declined to comment on the announcement because it had not yet received more information from the province.
The former Progressive Conservative government scrapped a previous ankle-bracelet program in 2017, with then-justice minister Heather Stefanson calling the program in place at the time inaccurate and ineffective.
In May 2023, also under the Tories, then-justice minister Kelvin Goertzen announced the government was working on a new program for alleged offenders deemed a high risk to public safety, as well as a pilot program and more staff.
Goertzen said at the time that the decision to bring back an electronic monitoring program was based, in part, on improvements in technology. The Tory minister said the province was set to begin a request-for-proposals process for the reinstated program.
The RFP was issued under the PCs in August 2023, before the contract was granted in June under the NDP.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Wiebe said the cutting of the program by the Tories had an impact on the province’s communities.
“We saw repeat offenders in our communities, making our communities less safe and ultimately calling into question the efficacy of our justice system,” he said.
But Balcaen said that it was a Tory program that the NDP is trying to capitalize on.
“This was work that was done by the PC government and the NDP are implementing it,” he said.
The provincial government, under Wiebe, announced a series of new policies in February meant to address concerns about public safety when people accused of crimes are granted bail.
One of the measures includes a policy advising Crown attorneys to consider the impact on community safety in their presentations at bail hearings, though some prosecutors at the time said the directive was nothing new.
The February plan included $3 million in funding for the Winnipeg Police Service to hire 12 new officer positions in 2024-25 to track down those who violate bail conditions.
Those positions are in addition to the 12 WPS and RCMP officers who formed the Manitoba integrated violent offender apprehension unit announced in 2022, the minister said at the time.
A further $514,000 was earmarked to expand data and intelligence sharing across jurisdictions and police agencies.
Five new bail workers were set to be hired to provide intensive supervision and expand mental health and addictions supports to ensure “chronic offenders” on bail adhere to their conditions, at a cost of $500,000, the province said in February.
At an invitation-only public safety summit meeting at the Keystone Centre in Brandon on July 11, Wiebe announced that the City of Brandon would receive $100,000 to put toward improving public safety downtown.
Then a day later, Wiebe announced the Brandon Police Service would be receiving $270,000 from the criminal property forfeiture fund to purchase equipment for officers and support community initiatives.
» gmortfield@brandonsun.com
» erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
