Manitoba spending $2.1M on child abuse investigative unit
Posted March 12, 2023 3:55 pm.
Manitoba is pledging $2.1 million to establish a provincewide child abuse investigative unit, the province announced Sunday.
The integrated child response unit will have dedicated police and operational resources to investigate cases of child abuse and exploitation.
“In the past five years, Manitoba has seen an increase in child abuse and exploitation,” said Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen in a statement. “This is an unacceptable reality and our government is taking concrete action to intervene, protect children and families, and ensure perpetrators are held to account for their actions.”
The province says the response is building on the model offered by Toba Centre for Children and Youth, in collaboration with the WPS and the RCMP.
Toba Centre opened in 2013 and has qualified forensic interviewers to help children who have been abused, and the new unit will be housed there.
“The development of an integrated, specialized child abuse unit, housed at Toba Centre is a huge step forward in ensuring children and families who experience abuse receive the response they deserve,” said Christy Dzikowicz, Toba’s executive director, in a statement.
“Manitoba is well on its way to having the most coordinated, collaborative and community-involved child abuse response in the country.”
The funding is also meant to help connect child victims and their families to child-centred supports in Manitoba.
Premier Heather Stefanson says the money is part of her government’s pledge of $52 million for crime-fighting measures in its budget earlier this month.
It’s the latest in a series of anti-crime announcements by the Progressive Conservative government in advance of an election scheduled for Oct. 3.
—With files from The Canadian Press
