Niverville Council hopes to find resources for the D.A.R.E. drug awareness program.

Mayor Myron Dyck says the issue is personnel.

“Teachers currently are at capacity,” explains Dyck. “There’s a certain training that’s involved in order to be able to teach the program, and it needs to be done by an RCMP member, and we know that our RCMP detachments have been full and busy.”

The mayor says the program would be worthwhile to high school students, however, he understands where it ends up in comparison to other police work.

“Our detachment is down a couple of members, so it’s about policing priorities.”

Dyck says Council will consider if there is room in the budget for the program at their next planning session.

“There is a secondary option,” Dyck informs, “and that would be something along the lines to a community service officer, similar to a program that is being run in Thompson and also in Steinbach, that would involve payment for that particular staff member by the community it represents.”

According to RCMP reports, the average number of crimes is down, however, Council questioned if that was, in part, due to a lesser police presence in the community.

“We’re hopeful that the federal government will continue to keep the St Pierre detachment flush,” shares Dyck. “It’s important for our community and we’ll do what we can, at a political level, to continue to lobby then to ensure that if members are being transferred out, that members are being transferred in.”