Peterborough homicide rate remains below national average

10-year average homicide rate in Peterborough is higher than Oshawa

Peterborough’s homicide rate remains below the national average and about in the middle of the pack of Canada’s census metropolitan areas, figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada indicate.

The agency’s annual homicide report listed two homicides in 2016 (Cindy Torbar and Terry Pringle) and one in 2017 (Paul Atchison) in Peterborough, resulting in a homicide rate (rate per 100,000 people) of 1.61 in 2016 and 0.80 in 2017.

Both rates were below the national average rates of 1.69 in 2016 and 1.80 in 2017.

For the 10-year period ending in 2016, Peterborough has averaged one homicide per year for a rate of 1.15, well below the national 1.67 average 10-year rate and tied for 17th lowest of Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas.

By comparison, Peterborough’s 10-year average rate is still above that of Oshawa (0.77), Guelph (0.79) Kingston (0.80), Brantford (0.92), Barrie (0.93), St. Catharines-Niagara (0.94), Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (1.03) and Windsor (1.03), and is tied with Sudbury at 1.15.

But the Peterborough 10-year rate is well below the rates for Thunder Bay (4.04), Winnipeg (3.69), Saskatoon (3.15), Edmonton (3.02), Halifax (2.45), Abbotsford-Mission, B.C. (2.44), Calgary (2.10), Vancouver (1.93), Toronto (1.54), Hamilton (1.30) and Montreal (1.21).

So far this year, there has been one homicide in Peterborough, the Aug. 23 broad daylight shooting of Sandra Finn, 70, in the parking lot of Home Depot. Her husband, Terrance Finn, 73, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the case.

The Peterborough rate is for the Peterborough census metropolitan area, which consists of Peterborough city, Selwyn Township, Cavan Monaghan Township, Douro-Dummer Township, Otonabee-South Monaghan Township, Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation.

The Peterborough CMA had a population of 125,666 in 2017, according to Statistics Canada.