Ste. Anne Manitoba is hoping to put a prolonged period of turbulence behind it with the hiring of a new police officer from Nova Scotia.
Marc Robichaud, a part-time police officer in Amherst, N.S., who also works as an investigator for the Atlantic Lottery Corp., was hired by town council in Ste. Anne, Man., Dec. 22.
Earlier this year, the small municipal police detachment in the community south of Winnipeg was rocked when its interim police chief and two constables quit over alleged interference by the town’s volunteer police commission.
The watchdog group has since been disbanded.
Robichaud, who has served with police forces in Morden and Stonewall, Man., takes over his new job Jan. 19.
He’ll inherit a police force that has had its share of squabbles in the last 18 months.
“We’re hoping we can be optimistic and look to the future as opposed to hashing up what’s happened in the past,” said Craig Cumming, deputy mayor of the 1,500-person town about 45 km southeast of Winnipeg.
“Hopefully, we can move forward in a positive way.”
Robichaud could not be reached for comment.
Cumming said “a handful” of people applied for the post, vacated by interim chief Dale Ridley in September.
Ridley, a retired Winnipeg police officer, and two part-time constables quit after a squabble with police commission members earlier this year over how officers were doing their jobs.
Ridley said at the time that he was told by commission members to rent a car or take a taxi when a police vehicle was sidelined.
He said a member also told him that officers should only be working day shifts, something he called “beyond ridiculous.”
Ridley was asked to take over the Ste. Anne police force after its former chief, Marc Saindon, was fired for unspecified reasons over a year ago.
Twice in the last year, RCMP officers from Steinbach, Man., have been brought in to shore up Ste. Anne’s police department while it was short handed.
Source: Canadian Press
