The government will outline this fall what changes might be made to the act, which was described as “seriously outdated,” by Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak. The current act dates back to the 1930s.

The overhaul will spell out the use of external agencies to investigate cases where police are accused of criminal offences, and it will deal with governance issues, such as the relationship between police, municipalities and police commissions, he said.

The province has been working on the matter for about a year, Chomiak said.

“We’ve looked at cross-country comparisons. We want to have the most up-to-date act in the country, and we want to allow the public to have their opportunity to weigh in as well.”  Public consultations will be held on the changes, he said.

“It’s something that First Nations, the general public, police, everyone in the justice community will have a chance to look at,” he said.

“We’ll have a pretty good made-in-Manitoba solution, and something that will be compatible with all the parties involved.”

Chomiak gave word of the review of the Police Act earlier this week, after native groups called on the province to launch a public inquiry into the Winnipeg Police Service in the wake of a police shooting that killed 26-year-old Craig McDougall.

McDougall’s death came less than two weeks after a 17-year-old boy died after being jolted with a Winnipeg police stun gun, and in the shadow of two public examinations of other high-profile civilian deaths involving police officers: the Taman inquiry, looking at the case of a former Winnipeg police officer who killed a woman in a car crash, and the inquest into the death of Matthew Dumas, a teen killed by police gunfire in 2005.

‘Unbelievable’
The opposition Conservatives are skeptical, saying they’ve heard the NDP make the same empty promises to update the act for years.

Justice critic Gerald Hawranik called Chomiak’s announcement “unbelievable,” arguing the government has been talking about overhauling the act since 2002 under former justice minister Gord Mackintosh.

“We’ve been asking for a review of the Police Act for the last four years, every year in the legislature, and all we’ve heard was, ‘Yes, it’s going to be reviewed as soon as practical,’ with no commitment as to a date for when it’s going to be reviewed,” he said. “That’s
irresponsible in my view.”

Chomiak said more details would be outlined in the fall throne speech. New legislation could be introduced in the spring legislative session, he said.

“In addition to a shocking 58 per cent jump in homicides last year, the report also shows that Manitoba is first in Canada when it comes to robbery, motor vehicle thefts and youth accused of homicides and attempted homicides,” Hawranik said, noting 2007 saw 62 homicides in Manitoba – an all time high since the NDP took office, with 33 accused being youths.  “I don’t know what more proof is needed for the NDP to acknowledge that they’ve got a crime epidemic on their hands.”

Hawranik also pointed to the city’s track record among major metropolitan areas, noting Winnipeg is first in: 

o        Homicide

o        Criminal Code offences

o        Robbery

o        Violent offences

o        Breaking and entering

o        Motor vehicle theft

Hawranik said despite the NDP’s own pre-budget survey highlighting crime is a serious concern for Manitobans, the NDP has failed to produce a plan to crack down on crime in our province.

“A full 95% of Manitobans agree that crime is the same or worse than it was five years ago, but the NDP didn’t even mention this detail in their news release on the survey,” Hawranik said. “Compared to the rest of Canada, our province and capital city are tops in the most dangerous offences, but tough on crime measures taken by this NDP government are non-existent.

“These crime stats should be used to help pinpoint the crime problems in our province, and at the very least, be enough for the Premier and Attorney General to pull their heads out of the sand and acknowledge the problem,” Hawranik said.

But the Mounties did discover plenty of evidence of poor governance, a weak investment management process, lack of internal controls, policies and procedures and poor expense management practices. None of that, however, warranted charges of any kind, said RCMP Sgt. Line Karpish.

“They may have been contributing factors leading to the fund’s demise but they don’t necessarily add up to criminal behaviour.”

Crocus critics were quick to say they weren’t disappointed by the RCMP’s findings as they didn’t expect it to dig up a mountain of evidence leading to numerous arrests.

Bernie Bellan, the disgruntled investor behind a $200-million class action lawsuit, said the results of the RCMP investigation shouldn’t impact any of the fund’s 34,000 unitholders.

“The only thing we should be concerned with is when are we going to see some money,” he said.

Gerald Hawranik, the Tory critic for Crocus, said the party always thought the RCMP investigation was a red herring. He said his party continues to believe there was “negligence and wilful neglect” on the government’s behalf and reiterated its call for a public inquiry.

“If you had no part to play in it, why would you settle for $3 million? It’s clear the role of the government needs to be examined to get at the whole story,” he said.

Hawranik said he has no illusions that the Doer government will open itself up such an exercise.

“That will require a change in government. We are committed to an independent inquiry to examine the province’s role and why it failed to act and protect taxpayers,” he said.

On Tuesday, Crocus’s receiver, Deloitte, said now that the last of the defendants in the class action has settled — tentative agreements are in place for more than $12 million — cheques could arrive in unitholders’ mailboxes by the fall.

Karpish said the RCMP investigation took “thousands of hours” and involved pouring over 60,000 documents and interviews with nearly 100 people. Among the concerns the Mounties found was a discovery that while expenses were required to be approved by the fund’s CEO, not all of them were. She declined to provide names or dollar figures but said an unspecified amount was subsequently reimbursed to the fund.

Bellan said Crocus directors and officers aren’t out of the woods yet and he’s looking forward to Manitoba Securities Commission hearings, which could take place as early as this fall.

“The securities commission is red-faced for what they’ve had to answer for with their lack of proper oversight of the fund. Part of their way of making amends will be to come down hard on the principals in Crocus,” he said.

Bellan noted he has taken down a number of inflammatory statements from his website dedicated to the cause (crocusfundalert.com) in the aftermath of the RCMP announcement. He said the site was dedicated to putting pressure on defendants in the class action and convincing them to settle. Now that it has served its purpose, he said he’s considering winding up the site.

“I’m not getting paid a cent for this. I’m tired of getting phone calls from shareholders asking me when they’re going to get their money back,” he said.

Robert Tapper, the lawyer representing James Umlah, the fund’s long-time chief investment officer who left three months before its shares were frozen in December 2004, said his client felt “relief and vindication” at the RCMP findings.

By CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA

Call us Murdertoba.

In a year when Canada’s overall crime and homicide rates declined, Manitoba reclaimed the murder crown with a record number of slayings in 2007, a Statistics Canada crime report revealed yesterday.

Police and observers say it’s hard to pinpoint a reason for the sharp increase but pointed to gangs, drug trades, substance abuse and youth violence as factors.

“What’s really alarming is in the homicides 33 youths are accused. This points to increased gang activity,” said Tory justice critic Gerald Hawranik.

There are fears Manitoba may retain the title in 2008. As of yesterday, there were at least 28 homicides.

At 5.2 homicides for every 100,000 people in 2007, Manitoba had the highest per-capita rate in Canada. Most provinces saw a decrease.

Saskatchewan was second with a rate of three. The national rate was two.

Manitoba recorded 62 homicides last year, 23 more than 2006.

Twenty-seven occurred in Winnipeg, which tied Saskatoon (seven murders in 2007) for the title of murder capital of Canada with a homicide rate of 3.6.

HIGH-RISK LIFESTYLES

“That’s not a place we want to be. We don’t want to be No. 1 in any of these categories,” said Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen.

It’s the most homicides in Manitoba in one year since record-keeping began in 1961.

Michalyshen said it’s difficult to prevent homicides because many occur in the heat of the moment.

Many victims know their killer or killers and are involved in high-risk lifestyles, he said.

Homicide figures have overshadowed decreases in several crime categories, although Manitoba and Winnipeg remain near the top in most.

In 2007, Winnipeg saw an overall crime reduction of 12.9%, the third-highest decline of any major Canadian city, and Manitoba a 7.2% drop.

Mayor Sam Katz said he wishes people would focus on those figures instead of the homicide numbers.

“If you really want to gauge crime, I don’t know whether homicide is the proper barometer,” Katz said. “It would be nice if everyone just chose to focus on the facts and the facts are crime is down.”

Manitoba and Winnipeg remain No. 1 in auto theft, a category that saw a decrease last year and a significant decline already in 2008.

Those figures may be a bit misleading, however, because attempted thefts are counted.

With a decrease of 7%, Canada’s national crime rate dropped for the third consecutive year and reached its lowest point in 30 years.

Manitoba had the fifth-highest overall crime rate. The Northwest Territories had the highest and Ontario the lowest.

—

WHERE WE SIT

Here’s how Winnipeg (out of 27 Canadian cities with populations of 100,000 or more) and Manitoba ranked in Statistics Canada’s 2007 crime report:

- Total Criminal Code 4th, 5th

- Violent offences 6th, 5th

- Homicide 1st (tie), 1st

- Robbery 2nd, 1st

-Total property offences 5th, 3rd

- Break-and-enter 4th, 2nd

-Auto theft 1st, 1st

At its general council meeting in Brandon yesterday, Keystone Agricultural Producers delegates passed a resolution opposing Doer’s daffy detour – a longer, more costly c-shaped route that would run from northeastern Manitoba, to almost the Saskatchewan border before cutting back to Winnipeg. KAP instead will join the growing lobby in favour the shorter, more direct, less costly and more environmentally friendly PC endorsed east side route, which would run from the northeast in a straight line down the east side of Lake Winnipeg to the city.

“We commend KAP for taking a stand against the west-side BiPole route because it would waste over $1 billion, 40MW of clean energy and would be far less reliable in emergency circumstances,” Cullen said.

The lobby against  the NDP’s west side route includes former NDP premier Ed Schreyer, former NDP MLA Elijah Harper, Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, environmentalist Robert Sopuck, 15 out of 16 east side First Nations chiefs, constitutional expert Bryan Schwartz, the Manitoba Business Council, several prominent engineers and Jim Collinson, a former head of UNESCO.

“It looks Gary Doer and his NDP cabinet stand alone in support of a west-side route,’ Cullen said. “At some point the premier needs to set aside his arrogance, admit he’s wrong and flip-flop on the issue.”

Progressive Conservatives have three key amendments to Bill 15 that would strengthen the bill that aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Manitoba.

These amendments would set the bar higher than the NDP have, with emission reduction guidelines identified in Bill 15.

“Progressive Conservatives cannot support the bill as it is – it’s window dressing,” said PC environment critic Heather Stefanson. “If  this government was serious about reducing GHGs they wouldn’t leave all the work until after the next election nor would they set themselves a goal to achieve nothing, which is the case with the carbon-neutral decade ‘goal’ in Bill 15.”

The reality is Manitoba could in fact increase emissions and still achieve the NDP’s carbon-neutral decade goal.

“Progressive Conservatives will not support a bill that aims to accomplish nothing,” Stefanson said.

PCs want Bill 15 amended to include:

Annual emission reduction targets (Bill 15 has no specific targets just a ‘carbon-neutral decade’ goal)
Independent annual reporting (not left to the government to self-monitor every four years)
Penalties for not reaching targets (the current bill has no penalties for government if goals aren’t met)
“We have consistently pointed out how watered-down and toothless this government’s so-called ‘green’ policies are and Bill 15 is a glaring example of giving the semblance of action while accomplishing next to nothing,” said Science, technology, energy and mines critic Cliff Cullen. “They may be master illusionists but the NDP aren’t champions of the environment. Our amendments give some substance to their flash.”

Bill 17, which proposes changes to the provincial environment act that would impose a permanent legislative moratorium on hog industry expansion in 35 Manitoba rural municipalities, is scheduled to go before a legislative committee for final public comment prior to third reading and passage.

So far over 400 groups and individuals have registered to express their views on the bill.

Opposition house leader Gerald Hawranik says the bill is a huge concern and he believes public input during the legislative committee review will be key.

Clip-Gerald Hawranik-PC Party of Manitoba

It’s a critical role in the legislative process because what it does is it allows producers, it allows people in rural Manitoba, in the city of Winnipeg, in Brandon and where ever, all Manitobans to come forward and express their views on Bill 17.

If the government is listening to what Manitobans have to say there’s a possibility of amendment whether it’s a friendly amendment from government itself to change the bill somewhat or whether it’s an amendment from opposition.

Quite often, as opposition, we’re listening when we hear those presentations and if we see that there is a very legitimate concern and the bill can be improved or it can help in terms of its impact on rural Manitoba and including on water quality then the opposition will propose amendments too to that bill so it does have a critical role.

It has a crucial role in the legislative process.

Hawranik describes Bill 17 as an attack on rural Manitoba and he insists there is no absolutely science to support the moratorium.

He says, at this point, the government appears to moving full steam ahead, indicating there will be no amendments, however he stresses that can change at committee and he urges people to come forward and express their views on the bill.

A Statistics Canada report released today shows Manitoba continues to have the fastest growing number of conditional sentences, says Progressive Conservative justice critic Gerald Hawranik, meaning convicted criminals avoid jail for the comfort of home.

According to the 2005/2006 Adult Correctional Services Report, Manitoba was the only province to have a double-digit percentage increase in criminals given conditional sentences. The report shows 1,152 enjoyed this luxury in 2005/2006 – 170 more than in the year previous, while Canada as a whole saw a 1.6% decrease.

“Manitoba saw a staggering 17.3% increase in house arrests while every other province saw either a decrease or nominal increase,” Hawranik said. “It’s a disturbing trend that the number of Manitoba criminals serving their sentences in our communities is rising each year at an alarming rate while other provinces are getting tougher on crime.”

Hawranik said PCs have consistently raised these concerns and this disturbing report confirms at least two conclusions.  

“When the NDP consistently allows criminals to serve their sentences in the community, it means our jails are overcrowded and the Attorney General isn’t providing crown prosecutors with the direction to ask for tougher sentences,” Hawranik said.

“A poorly managed justice system means Manitobans can’t be assured their communities are safe. What is the NDP doing today to ensure criminals serve their time behind bars where they belong?”

Contrary to the NDP spin, Bill 37 leaves the call of Manitoba’s next election at the whim of the premier. Only after the next provincial election does the bill unreservedly set dates for subsequent elections. We have been calling for set election dates, but the goal of certainty for Manitobans has been lost because Gary Doer refuses to give up his power to call the next election whenever it suits him.

This bill also contains another NDP tax grab. Taxpayers already give political parties $4 million, each and every election, through tax credits and subsidies. The NDP wants to pick your pocket for an additional $500,000 every year — half of which would go directly to the NDP. Progressive Conservatives believe taxpayers already contribute enough to elections and the onus should be on political parties to earn support through voluntary donations — not another tax grab. We believe that money would be better spent on health care, public safety or education.

Just as sinister are the NDP proposals to stifle public debate by gagging communications from opposition parties. In 2001, the NDP brought in legislation that put severe limits on advertising by political parties outside election periods. Bill 37 retains these limits, and adds to them by limiting communications from your elected MLA. It gives the NDP government the power to censor communications from MLAs and decide how much of this mail we send. These extraordinary powers to make and enforce the rules are provided to the Legislative Assembly Management Commission, a committee of MLAs dominated by the NDP. Imagine if the Winnipeg Free Press had to let the Winnipeg Sun edit its content before going to press every day! At the same time, the NDP intends to continue millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns to bolster their political fortunes right up until a few weeks before the beginning of the next campaign.

These measures are meant to silence opposition parties and keep voters in the dark about what the government is doing, except for what the government itself wants you to know. It’s undemocratic, unconstitutional and puts us on a slippery slope towards a one-party political state.

Finally, Bill 37’s provisions dealing with lobbyists puts the fox in charge of the henhouse by putting the NDP cabinet in charge of monitoring lobbyists. The same dysfunctional model was in place when Adscam happened, and was rejected by the Gomery Commission. Giving a cabinet-appointed watchdog the power to monitor meetings involving individual MLAs — opposition and government alike — will discourage Manitobans from sharing information with their elected representatives.

The NDP’s goal with Bill 37 is to limit your right to know so they can maintain their hold on power. It’s designed to prevent opposition parties from telling Manitobans about bad decisions the NDP is making — quietly hiking Pharmacare rates to punish the sick and the elderly, breaking promises on hallway medicine, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the next hydro transmission line and scrapping balanced budget legislation. These are things the NDP doesn’t want you to know about.

Gary Doer has been in power for so long he thinks he’s entitled to preside over our province like a king, with no accountability to his subjects. You have the ability to hold him to account when Bill 37 goes to committee.

Progressive Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen said scrapping Manitoba’s nation-leading balanced budget law is irresponsible and dangerous in our current economic uncertainty.

In the 1990s, Manitoba was among the first provinces to enact legislation preventing deficits and requiring debt to be repaid. Its strength was heralded across Canada and served as a template for other provinces in the years since.

During the 1999 election campaign, the current NDP government vowed to keep balanced budget legislation.

“If we have the privilege of governing Manitoba after tomorrow, we will be completely accountable to these core commitments,” Doer said of balanced budget legislation in an NDP news release dated Sept. 20, 1999 — the eve of his government taking office.

Under Section 3 (1) of Bill 38, the NDP can overspend and use the net income of Crown corporations like Manitoba Hydro and Manitoba Public Insurance, to give the illusion of balancing the books and are only required to actually have balanced books over a four year average. Watering down fiscal accountability even further, under section 3 (3) (d) of the bill, if another level of government or regulatory body makes a decision that has any impact on government revenue within 30 days of the provincial budget being tabled and “was not anticipated”, the NDP doesn’t have to balance the books at all.

“Bill 38 is nothing more than a series of excuses and loophole the NDP can use to overspend and leave taxpayers in the hole,” said PC finance critic Rick Borotsik.