View From the Legislature

In 2009 Manitoba Justice created the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund. The premise of it was simple. When criminals are caught with assets that have come from committing a crime or that were used in the commission of a crime, those assets should be provided to law enforcement and others who are looking to combat crime. In that way, the very assets that those who have broken the law and victimised others with, are turned around to prevent others from becoming victims.

Since 2009, more than $20 million has been redistributed from those who have committed crimes to those who are combatting crime. This past week and over the next few weeks, Manitoba Justice will be awarding funds from proceeds of crime to law enforcement and organizations across the province. These organizations submitted applications for consideration prior to being selected for the funding.

On Friday of last week, as Manitoba’s Minister of Justice and the MLA for Steinbach, and together with Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk, I visited the Steinbach RCMP detachment to congratulate them on being awarded $20,500 to purchase new equipment, such as night vision and thermal imaging cameras. These are important tools in helping combat property crime which is a serious issue in the southeast. In addition, funding was provided to the Eastman Crime Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST), in the amount of $17,500. CREST supports the various policing detachments in the southeast by offering intelligence-based investigations into drugs, property crime and serious prolific offenders within rural communities. Combined, the more than $35,000 in funding is welcome support for local law enforcement.

Also on Friday, I visited the offices of the Joy Smith Foundation in Winnipeg which is dedicated to combatting Human Trafficking in Canada. $50,000 from the proceeds of crime funding has been committed to the Foundation to support the creation of training and awareness material. Human Trafficking is both a present and growing concern and the work of the Joy Smith Foundation across Canada helps to shed light on what is a very tragic and often unseen concern.

These are just two examples of how the proceeds of crime funding is being used. In all, there will be more than $1 million offered to support those who are working to better our communities and keep them safe. I would like to thank the RCMP, municipal and first nations police forces for submitting their ideas and applications for support through the proceeds of crime fund. More importantly, I would like to thank each of the men and women in law enforcement for their continued work and dedication in supporting our communities and those who live within them.