New $3M investment to help with Manitoba's missing person response

File image of a Winnipeg police missing person poster online. (Source: CTV News Winnipeg)

A new government investment of more than $3 million will help enhance and streamline the police response to missing person cases in Manitoba.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced the Manitoba government is providing $3.1 million to support the Manitoba Integrated Missing Person Response, which helps with the sharing of information between police agencies, Indigenous advocates and CFS when someone goes missing.

This new investment will help provide a streamlined reporting, tracking and investigative approach to missing person cases in rural communities, municipalities and First Nations in Manitoba.

Goertzen said the money is expected to help decrease the number of missing people; provide timely investigations into suspicious missing person cases; increase the number of supports and programs; and decrease the demand on police resources.

“Manitoba is a big area geographically so when someone goes missing it’s difficult, of course, to be able to always pinpoint where an individual might be,” he said.

“But we have the ability to come together with different law enforcement to bring those resources together and try to work collaboratively together. When we do that, we see results.”

Statistics from the Government of Canada show that in 2021, there were 2,124 missing adults in Manitoba – 37 per cent of whom were classified as runaways or chronic missing people.

The numbers also show that Manitoba had the second-highest number of missing adults per capita in Canada, with 152 reports per 100,000 people.

In terms of missing children, 5,390 cases were reported in Manitoba in 2021, with 63 per cent of them being runaway girls. The government statistics show that Manitoba had the highest number of missing children per capita at 375 reports per 100,000 people.

“We all understand the troubling statistics around missing persons in Manitoba,” Goertzen said.

“It is a significant problem that continues to plague our province and results in a lot of different challenges for families, for communities and for law enforcement.”

The Manitoba Integrated Missing Persons Response was first announced earlier this year with an initial investment of $2.1 million.