Manitoba slams scrapping of program

WINNIPEG — Manitoba is slamming Ottawa for cutting front-line policing on dozens of the province’s reserves, calling it part of a federal “line of attack” on First Nation communities.

Attorney General Andrew Swan told a gathering of the governing New Democrats that he just learned of the cuts to the band constable program in January. The 45-year-old program that allows First Nations to police their own communities in partnership with the RCMP will be terminated in just over a year, Swan said.

“This is a continuing line of attacks on aboriginal people by the federal government,” he told a convention of the provincial NDP in Winnipeg on Sunday. “The Conservative government tells us they’re about law and order. They may be about law but they’re sure as hell not about order.”

Some 31 First Nations communities across Manitoba rely on band constables and get about $1.7 million for the program. Despite the funding, some reserves say they’ve had to fundraise to pay the constables’ salaries. Supporters of the program say the constables are a vital front-line service for many remote reserves where the RCMP detachment is several communities away.

Band constables are trained to federal policing standards but live in the community and can diffuse many situations before they evolve into crimes, Swan said. The aboriginal constables can enforce band bylaws and are often first on the scene in an emergency while the RCMP are still making their way there, he added.

Both Alberta and New Brunswick have similar First Nation policing programs but it’s not clear whether those are also being terminated, Swan said.

The NDP unanimously passed a resolution calling on the federal government to reverse its decision to terminate the band constable program, which it accused of “effectively ending front-line policing on many Manitoba First Nation communities.”