Manitoba government advertises program that does not exist

The Manitoba government is running an anti-crime ad campaign that focuses on the use of GPS monitoring devices to track high risk criminals, but not a single offender has worn an ankle bracelet in the province since 2017.

That's when then-justice minister Heather Stefanson cancelled the electronic monitoring program after an NDP-ordered review concluded the bracelets were either inaccurate or ineffective. At the time, Stefanson said ending the program would save the government around $100,000.

In a recent pre-election announcement, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the province is reversing course by reinstating electronic monitoring devices, citing advances in technology and the impact of federal bail reform, which resulted in "individuals being released who perhaps shouldn't be released on bail."

It's been two months since Goertzen's announcement, but the public tender for electronic monitoring devices has yet to be posted.

What has been posted on billboards and buses is an ad that features a person wearing an ankle bracelet with the slogan "Fighting Crime Tracking Violent Criminals." The ad also appeared on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press on Thursday, all paid for with public dollars.

Parties in power, including the previous NDP government, have run ads using the public purse in the run-up to the pre-election blackout period, which up until 2021 barred the governing party from using taxpayer dollars to advertise 90 days prior to an election.

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The Progressive Conservative government made several amendments to the restrictions on government advertising in the Election Financing Act, including shortening the blackout period to 60 days and carving out an exception for advertising that "is in continuation of earlier advertisements or publications concerning an ongoing or recurring program or activity."

This means ads bought with taxpayer dollars before the 60-day blackout can potentially stay up until election day.

Manitoba's general election is scheduled for Oct. 3.

The press secretary for Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen did not immediately reply to questions about the cost of the campaign and whether it will stay up until election day.

The ad "contains no substantive public policy information," Paul Thomas, political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba, wrote in an email to CBC News.

Crime and justice are wedge issues the PCs are "seeking to exploit" because of perceptions the NDP is vulnerable to the accusation that they are soft on crime, he said.

"The billboard serves as a condensation symbol, it condenses people's feelings of anxiety, fear and frustration with rising crime levels."

Thomas noted crime problems are complex and this ad proposes simplified solutions for short-term political purposes.

"Such ads do not actually address the real problems. Measuring their effectiveness in attracting votes is difficult. The PC [party] obviously believes such ads work and would point to their uptick in support in the most recent polls," wrote Thomas.

The government closed a request for information process in mid-June to identify potential suppliers and the types of products available, with the aim of using the information to solicit bids.

The intention is to monitor "high-risk offenders released on bail, in the community and on temporary absences," reads the document.

A spokesperson for the department did not give a timeline for when the request for proposals (RFP) — a type of public tendering process — will be issued, but said the Justice Department is "now working with Procurement Services" to prepare an RFP.

University of Winnipeg criminologist Michael Weinrath said violent crime has been on the rise in the city since 2015.

Weinrath has found uneven results when it comes to monitoring the effectiveness of the devices over the years.

"Provincial jurisdictions adopt it and they drop it. They use it for certain types of offenders and then they don't. The federal government got involved in it and then they pulled back. So it's had a very checkered history in Canada," Weinrath said.

In Manitoba, it started as a program for car thieves and was expanded to include domestic violence offenders before it was shelved. Between 2013 and 2017 the number of electronic monitoring devices in use ranged from two to eight at any given time, according to a department spokesperson.

Weinrath said electronic monitoring is labour intensive.

"You need to have somebody there actually watching it all the time. So when you think about it, to actually track 20 or 30 people, it is pretty hard for one person to do it," said Weinrath.

At the May 1 press conference, Goertzen estimated the cost of the program could exceed $500,000 plus an undisclosed amount for staffing.

That same day, the head of the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys said programs where people are monitored result in more breaches of court orders.

"What you need then are Crown attorneys in the courtrooms, in the bail rooms, opposing their release," Crown attorney Erika Dolcetti said in a May interview.

Manitoba launches pilot project and doubles capacity of existing program to monitor people on bail

Weinrath said policy decisions on crime suppression based on cost effectiveness analysis could identify other ways to achieve desired results.

"Instead of hiring a number of new police officers or even prosecutors, [imagine] we hired more street workers — that we expanded the Main Street project, that we renovated a Manitoba Housing unit, that we offered more mental health counsellors, more mental health beds."

Producer, CBC News I-Team

Joanne Levasseur is a producer for the CBC News I-Team based in Winnipeg. She has worked at CBC for more than two decades. Twitter: @joannehlev

with files from Ian Froese