Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox and some of the city staff and councillors were invited to a conference in Saskatoon by the City of North Battleford. They were meeting about the effects of the Crime Severity Index (CSI) for communities of similar size. 

Mayor Knox explains CSI was implemented about 15 years ago and its purpose has been somewhat abused, causing harm to communities that are similar size and population as Portage.

"We met with 11 different cities, close to our size and some First Nations, and we met with Stats Canada," says Knox. "We talked about what we wanted to see change when it came to the Crime Severity Index and talked about the further harm it's causing to our communities. We asked for some changes. One of those changes is that they delay the release of the 2023 stats."

She notes they looked at the model and information going out, and asked them to make a change in the threshold of populations that they release. As it turns out, the threshold of population numbers make a huge difference in the placement of communities like ours.

"Right now it's communities over 10,000 and we asked it to move to more to a 100,000 threshold because, with the Crime Severity Index, one crime in our community that has some severity can completely change our Crime Severity Index. It's giving our community sort of a false sense of safety and security.'

Public Safety Chair Colin Doyle adds when the index was originally started, it was used by municipal police services and RCMP to decide funding and allocation of resources.

"There are different methods of calculating that now," continues Doyle. "So, when this, this CSI comes out every year, all it's doing is taking the same 11 communities that we met with, and putting them in the top 10/top 15 for the last 15 years. Every year when this comes out, the same cities are listed. Between North Battleford and Thompson, Manitoba, they share number one and two spots every time. Portage is always near the top of that list in the mix, and it's just an unfair representation of what is happening in our city." 

He explains it's the ranking that's a problem. News stories then come out about the top 10 most dangerous cities when it's not a true reflection of how dangerous a city is, he notes.

"It's based on different categories that are weighted in different terms, and some of it isn't even reflective of the city that is being reported," adds Doyle. "For example, if someone is charged with a crime who lives outside of our city and they come to the City of Portage to use our our courthouse. and they don't show up for their court appearance, which is a knock against the City of Portage. Meanwhile, it has nothing to do with our City. So, the numbers are very skewed and if the information is required, I feel that it could be used in-house with the the local police services, rather than being published for different media outlets to grab and run with." 

Knox adds it's important to know that the CSI was never meant to be a ranking system, and that was done by media.

"The information was for our police services to look at trend," says Knox. "It wasn't meant to just be, 'Let's look at where the most crime is in different places.' It was to look at trends and changes in trends so they could evaluate and determine where more resources and more supports were needed. But it's very interesting the way it's laid out because one small incident can change a community completely."

She explains crime hasn't really changed that much in communities like ours over the last 15 years, but the media can often sensationalize an issue and make the CSI more about ranking what's dangerous, and Stats Canada is not making that rank whatsoever.

"Using words like 'dangerous' is causing further harm to communities," continues Knox. "I wouldn't say that anybody who lives in our community or country or province would want to be doing that. We know it's hard to change what comes out the world of Google, and it's a hard one to stop. So, we want to see Stats Canada make some changes to that as to what information they're putting out there." 

From this point onward, Knox notes a working group is being formed and cities will continue to lobby our provincial governments to let them know about this. 

"The federal government will get the information, making sure Stats Canada -- the people that were there were employees of Stats Canada -- we want to make sure they're getting the information to the federal ministers to know what this type of reporting is doing to us. We're going to be by Zoom, and the City of Thompson is going to be organizing that. We had a commitment from all the 11 cities that were there and the First Nations that were there, and we know that there's going to be more invited. That list that comes is the top 20. We know there's more. In our province, it's us, Selkirk and Thompson that are most affected by it." 

She notes it makes the list a weapon against communities than an aid.

"Stats Canada has a mandate that they do no harm," adds Knox. "What we're finding, and it was a really clear message, is that this information was doing harm. And when we talk about harm, it's not just the reputation of a community, or the fact of people calling it unsafe and the people who live here thinking that they're in a dangerous community, but it's affecting us when it comes to recruiting people to come here. It's affecting us when you know we're doing economic development, and a business, looks at those numbers. When they're deciding where they want to do something and they have options and they're comparing us to other places, having a stat like that is doing harm to us. It's not truly what's happening in our city, or the great things that are happening here. It's setting a really bad view of our community, which we don't need."

 

Those present at the meeting inlcuded: Western Canada municipal leaders Prince George City Councillor Trudy Klassen, Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook, North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley, Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf, Wetaskiwin Mayor Tyler Gandam. Back row, L-R: Langley City Councillor Paul Albrecht, Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers, Langley City Councillor Delaney Mack, North Battleford Councillor Thomas “Bill” Ironstand, Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox, Portage la Prairie Councillor Colin Doyle, North Battleford Councillor Kelli Hawtin, Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.