Among metropolitan cities, only Kelowna, B.C., and Lethbridge, Alta., had higher crime rates in 2021, according to the Aug. 2 report. The traditional crime rate has been used to measure police-reported crime in Canada and is expressed as a rate per 100,000 people. The crime rate is calculated by adding up all Criminal Code incidents reported by the police and dividing by the population. In Moncton, the rate rose seven per cent, from 8,588 per 100,000 people in 2020 to 9,168 in 2021 Moncton has the third highest crime rate among Canadian metropolitan cities in 2021, according to a Statistics Canada report released on August 2. The crime rate is calculated per 100,000 population. (Prapti Bamaniya/CBC) Moncton also ranks fourth in the Crime Severity Index, or CSI, which increased by nine percent. Warren Silver, an analyst with Statistics Canada, said the increase in CSI was due to more serious crimes being reported. “Well, we’re basically saying that crime is nine percent more serious in 2021 than it was in 2020. And what’s really driving that increase is an increase in breaking and entering and Level 1 sexual assault “, he said. Sexual assault is ranked by levels of severity by Statistics Canada. Level 1 is the least serious, including any violation of the victim’s sexual integrity. Level 2 sexual assault involves a weapon, bodily harm, or threats of a weapon. Level 3 is also known as aggravated sexual assault, which involves a sexual assault that injures, maims, disfigures or endangers the life of the victim. The numbers only include police-reported crimes, and the report says any increases in 2021 may be due to a decrease in reported crimes in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moncton councillors recently held a special meeting to discuss a public safety plan in June, which included 22 recommendations with no timelines or costs. Among them are clearing tent cities within 72 hours and spending more money to bolster the number of RCMP officers in the area. Kevin Walby, a criminologist from the University of Winnipeg, said increasing the police budget is not a solution to these numbers. “To increase the police budget more, it’s just never going to work.” “The only way we can reduce offending and really create safer, healthier communities is to fund community and social development, to fund non-punitive approaches to dealing with offending and harm.” According to a Statistics Canada report released on August 2, Moncton had the fourth highest crime severity index in 2021. The Crime Severity Index (CSI) measures the severity of crimes in a specific area. More serious crimes are weighted more heavily in the CSI compared to the crime rate. (Prapti Bamaniya/CBC)

The police council says more officers could help

Don Moore, chairman of the Codiac Regional Police Authority board, said he believes increasing the police presence is part of the solution to reducing crime rates. “I think there are other solutions. However, as a police authority, we have our mandate on what to do,” Moore said. “This is not just a police solution. There are other aspects to making this work in an overall strategy.” Meanwhile, according to the report, the number of crimes in Saint John decreased in 2021 by about four percent from the previous year. In 2020, Saint John had the third highest crime rate, but in 2021 it was ranked 28th on the list of all metropolitan cities in Canada. “The noticeable decrease in robberies could certainly help make a difference,” said St. John’s Police Sgt. Sean Rocca. Provincially, New Brunswick has the eighth highest crime rate of the 13 provinces and territories, and it increased by eight per cent from the previous year, placing it above the national average. The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon had the highest crime rate among provinces and territories. But Cpl. Hans Oullette, media spokesman for the RCMP in New Brunswick said the province is still “a safe place to live.” “The numbers may go up or down from year to year, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate a trend because of all kinds of different factors,” he said. The severity of crime in New Brunswick is up 7 percent from last year, while the youth crime rate is down 5 percent. Moore said the Codiac Regional Police Authority has launched a new policing plan in the area. After engaging with 80 communities and receiving community input through surveys, aldermen will review and create recommendations. The report is due to be published in September. “We want it to take … the next 3 to 5 years to move the needle in a positive way for safety and security in our community,” Moore said. Walby said spending more money on policing hasn’t made much of a difference in the crime rate in the past, and said Moncton should look at other options. “We’ve seen that as more money goes into policing, it has very little effect on offending,” he said. “So there’s a disconnect there. The police say they’re keeping us safe and they’re producing safety in society. But none of the numbers really suggest that they’re doing that.”

Canada had an overall crime rate increase of one percent. This rise is largely due to an 18 percent increase in the rate of Level 1 sexual assault, which overall accounted for 98 percent of police-reported sexual assaults in 2021. The rate of sexual assault in Canada in 2021 is the highest since 1996. “The number of police-reported sexual assaults is likely a significant underestimate of the true extent of sexual assault in Canada, given that these types of offenses are often not reported to the police,” Statistics Canada said in its report. Reported hate crimes have also increased, up 36 percent since 2020 in Canada. Overall, the number of police-reported hate crimes increased by 72 percent from 2019 to 2021. Nationally, there was a continued decrease in the rates of breaking and entering, theft under $5,000 and robbery. Opioid-related offenses were the only type of offense related to a specific drug that increased over the past two years in Canada. All opioid-related offenses were up 13 percent from the previous year. These offenses include possession, dealing, production and import or export offences. The Public Health Agency of Canada said the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the ongoing public health crisis of opioid overdose deaths and hospitalizations. During the first year of the pandemic, there were 7,362 opioid-related deaths, a 96 percent increase from the previous year, according to the agency.