GATINEAU, QUE. -- Four new intervention teams, made up of a mix of police officers and community workers, will be set up in Quebec to work with Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people struggling with certain social problems.
These teams will first hit the ground in Roberval, Chibougamau, Joliette and Maniwaki, municipalities served by the Sûreté du Québec provincial police.
The Legault government plans to invest nearly $11.7 million over four years in the project.
Quebec Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault and the Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs, Ian Lafrenière, made the announcement Monday in Gatineau.
"We are going to have police officers from the Sûreté du Québec who will work jointly with community workers who will be associated either with Native Friendship Centres, [regional health authorities] or who will also come from Indigenous police forces," Guilbault explained.
The new patrols will intervene with people grappling with a particular problem -- for example, alcohol and drug consumption, social breakdown, frequent arrests and homelessness.
These mixed teams, which are inspired by a formula that already exists in Quebec and elsewhere in North America, will aim to guide these vulnerable people to resources suited to their needs and to better intervene in a crisis situation.
The presence of community interveners or Indigenous civilian liaison officers within these teams aims to make the interventions "more appropriate," "safer" and "more useful," Guilbault said.
"Because arresting and then prosecuting people who have mental health problems or other social problems is both ineffective and counterproductive," she argued.
The mixed teams are intended to play a preventive role in drug addiction, violence and sexual exploitation, in addition to improving relations between homeless people and local populations.
"It does not replace the police that we know -- it is an addition. And what is interesting is it's the wish of the communities," said Lafrenière.
These teams will be set up "as soon as possible," said Guilbault. Maniwaki's could be in place by March 31, and then the other three teams will follow.
The project stems from one of the recommendations of the report of the Viens commission on the relations between Aboriginals and certain public services in Quebec. It aims to strengthen the bonds of trust between the First Nations and the police.
The initiative also responds to a recommendation of the Action Group against Racism.
The Chief of the Kitigan Zibi Band Council in the Outaouais, Dylan Whiteduck, said the mixed patrols are a "start."
"I think this answers some of the problems we are facing," said Whiteduck, who called on Quebec to work on the increase in cases of fentanyl consumption.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 13, 2021.
