Steinbach to hire private security to augment RCMP

Steinbach city council has directed administration to explore the hiring of a private security firm at a Tuesday meeting, saying that it is needed to fill gaps left by the RCMP.

A report to council from city manager Troy Warkentin outlined the issue that despite increases in the complement of RCMP assigned to Steinbach, currently set at 18 as of the 2022/23 fiscal year, they have not seen those numbers.

Lack of RCMP officers has meant that though the authorized number of members has been set at 18 for the last three years, the city has only seen a high of 15.41 in 2022/23 and a low of 13.89 in 2024/25. This year shows 14.42 actual members assigned.

Those numbers range from 15 percent to 25 percent below what is approved.

Coun. Michael Zwaagstra made the motion to pursue private security, using funds from the police budget that go unpaid because of the shortage of officers.

It was seconded by Coun. Susan Penner and unanimously supported by all of council.

Zwaagstra said this challenge is being faced by many municipalities.

“This is not an issue that’s unique to Steinbach,” he said. “We’re seeing this frankly throughout the country and particularly our province of Manitoba.”

Council has already pursued other options, including accepting the Ste Anne Police Department’s offer to conduct patrols paid for by MPI and the hiring of private security for local parks.

“The reality is, the RCMP work hard, they do a good job,” he said. “But when your numbers are low, when you don’t have the full complement, it’s very difficult to do that.”

He added that when the city is down a few officers, urgent calls take priority which can mean less traffic enforcement or attention to petty crime.

Private security will be paid for from unused funds in the police budget set for approximately $4 million this year.

“This is money that we already budgeted for,” he said, adding that being short police officers means it goes unspent.

“That does mean that the city does save some money but the reason we authorize a certain number of officers is because we want that amount of coverage.”

Coun. Susan Penner agreed, saying safety in Steinbach is important.

“I think it makes sense to examine other options,” she said.

Mayor Earl Funk said private security will be a good addition.

“They will be a deterrent to the petty crimes that we see, the property crime, the small thefts,” he said.