A Steinbach business's social media rant has prompted a rebuttal from Mayor Earl Funk. 

The complaint stated, “As long as the city and the rcmp are either unwilling or unable to fix the drug and theft problem in this city we will not continue to clean up after midnight scavengers.” 

The mayor says there are effective programs in the city that are successful in helping reduce petty crimes. That statement is backed by statistics in the 2023 report presented to city council just last month. 

Staff Sargent Guy Landreville told council the RCMP detachment has five main priorities that they are working on; visibility of the police, reduction in property crimes such as break and enters and vandalism, and a respectful workplace. The fourth and fifth priorities on the list are to reduce organized crime and reduce traffic-related crime. 

Funk says RCMP are noticing the impact that the Headway program is having on crime in the city. 

According to Heidi Harder Falk, within Headway’s youth program, they have seen at least a 90 per cent reduction in criminal charges towards a young person after becoming a client. There has been an 83 per cent reduction in risk factors and 83 per cent of young people get connected to new services. Harder Falk says 100 per cent of support teams have a better understanding of their client's at-risk activities. There is also at least a 50 per cent reduction in calls for police services. 

Headway has also started working with adult clients. 

“We know there are things that are working in our community,” Funk says. “As far as drugs, I think we’ll always have them. But the GIS unit is always, every day, gathering intel, working on making sure that we’re going to get the ‘bigger fish.’” 

He explains taking the supplier of drugs out of the picture, is more effective than looking for the person who is selling the drugs on the street. 

“If you can get the supplier, where it comes from, whether that’s western Canada or eastern Canada, if you can go that big where you can interrupt the actual supply chain, that’s where you’ll start making a difference in the drug trade.” 

Funk points to significant drug seizures like the 61 kilograms of cocaine seized during a traffic stop in the RM of Reynolds, and the seizure of cocaine, illegal cannabis, psilocybin, cash and other drug-related paraphernalia in the RM of Lac du Bonnet. 

“The RCMP are always working, the GIS unit is always working on intel, always focusing on organized crime and those numbers are coming down.” 

And most recently, a search warrant in Steinbach resulted in the seizure of drugs, a firearm and a large amount of cash.

On May 1st, as part of an ongoing drug investigation, Steinbach RCMP General Investigative Section and East District Crime Reduction Enforcement Support Team, executed a search warrant at a residence in Steinbach.

Officers seized methamphetamine, crack cocaine, psilocybin, six kilograms of illicit cannabis, 45,000 illicit cigarettes, a conducted energy weapon, a firearm and over $140,000 in cash.

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