Steinbach city council has agreed to support a call by Provencher MP Ted Falk for a national government study into crime in rural areas. Falk says rural crime is going up and the study would examine why and what can be done as well as whether police have enough resources to address the issue. City councillor Earl Funk made the motion to support Falk's initiative.

City council in discussion Tuesday."I do think it's important because there is such a large rural aspect to our detachment and policing is such a huge part of our community infrastructure. They do so much work and they want the people to feel safe. They do a good job and they want to know what they need to change to a good job and this (the study) is something that is going to facilitate that."

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra agrees.

"I think it's appropriate that we support our Member of Parliament's request to ask for a study in this regard because the reality is that we have a police detachment here in Steinbach that has the urban component where we pay for the officers, but there's also a rural component in the same detachment that polices the area around Steinbach. And, we know that what happens around Steinbach affects what happens in Steinbach and vice-versa. So, when you have a healthy and strong rural component to the detachment, that helps the urban component. We certainly think it makes sense to ask the federal government to study rural policing and certainly strengthen it in that regard."

City council was unanimous in approving the motion.

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