As hundreds gather to tackle retail theft in Winnipeg, a local thrift store readies to close its doors

Sydney Burnham says she can’t take it anymore.

In all the years she’s worked at the D’Arcy’s Animal Rescue Centre thrift store — which raises money for the Winnipeg shelter —  the manager of the non-profit business in Point Douglas said she’s always had to deal with shoplifters.

Burhman said they were nothing but a minor annoyance until recently.

“People would maybe try and hide something. Not anymore: They grab an armful and walk out,” the store manager said.

“It’s really changed that way.… You can’t run a business when people are doing things like that.”

Burnham said the rise in brazen incidents has left her worried about the safety of the store’s customers and its employees. 

WATCH | Manitoba summit tackles retail theft and safety:

A sign informing people the store will be closing down in December was posted on the bulletin board near its entrance last week. The notice says the difficult decision came amid rising operational costs — and a jump in retail thefts.

“It’s going be hard not having this shop here. It’s a staple of this neighbourhood,” Burnham said. “This has been a big part of our lives.”

The thrift store is not the only business in the city that’s concerned about a the rise in theft. On Friday, a first-of-its-kind summit for Manitoba brought together a wide-ranging group of private and public representatives to tackle the problem and safety in the province.

More than 400 people were expected to attend the Retail Secure Manitoba Summit at downtown Winnipeg’s RBC Convention Centre.

“So often retailers have great conversations with police in isolation and governments in isolation, but the whole objective here is to bring all of the key people into one room,” said John Graham, Prairie region director with the Retail Council of Canada, which is hosting the event.

“We’ll have everything from small and large businesses to police services from across the province, private security, prosecution, different governments, unions, the number of community well-being organizations — all that play a role in finding solutions to these safety and security issues.”

Businesses are on the front lines of the issue, Graham said. In Winnipeg over the past year, a number of businesses have closed or relocated, citing violence and crime.

“I think there’s that perspective that retail theft is victimless, but not only is there a real financial impact to a lot of businesses, but also that human impact — when incidents occur in stores, there’s a lasting impact on those employees,” Graham told CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio guest host Faith Fundal.

A retail anti-theft initiative was launched as a pilot project in May, with the provincial government paying for police officers in Winnipeg to work overtime to target parts of the city where retail theft was most rampant — Osborne Village, the Exchange District and the West End.

It is set to wrap up at the end of the month, but Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said the province should make it permanent.

“Without a doubt, it’s making a difference, so I’d like to see that continued,” he said.

Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada, echoed that, saying the organization has heard from several Manitoba retailers.

“We’re already hearing from our smaller retailers that they’re not as fearful, that they’re seeing less incidents,” she said.

Premier Wab Kinew, who was also at the summit, said he is “actively looking at” extending the anti-theft initiative further.

“Part of what we got to do is we got to look at the new 12 provincially funded police officers who are coming on line next month, check in with the police service about how members are doing with overtime and work-life balance, because we got to take care of those who take care of us,” he said.

“And we’ll make that decision together about what the best next step is here.”

Brisebois hailed Manitoba as an example for other provinces to follow.

“What Manitoba is doing is an example of bringing all the right parties together to solve a problem, not to take a hammer and hit the nail down. The [anti-theft initiative], the summit today are what we want to see carried right through the country,” she said.

“We’re all sitting at the table trying to find a solution. Manitoba is the first province that has done that in a very progressive way.”

Manitoba also launched a community safety strategy in July, expanding community safety patrols and mental health training in downtown Winnipeg. The retail summit is partly in response to that latter strategy, Graham said.

“We really felt that there was a business piece missing there, because a lot of the community’s issues intersect and flow into businesses throughout our province,” he said.

“Today is really about looking at how we can support businesses to be more proactive in some of their issues around safety and security, but also how to interact with community groups and police and prosecution.”

It’s important for businesses and their employees to know how to navigate the available supports because the issues they are sometimes exposed to can be complex, Graham said.

For instance, many are related to people struggling with addictions or mental health issues, he said.

“There’s just not a lot of experience for a lot of retailers on how to manage those types of incidents. They’re not really criminal and shouldn’t necessarily be using police resources,” Graham said.

The summit is an opportunity to discuss how to leverage the work of social services, police and groups like the Sabe Peace Walkers and Downtown Community Safety Partnership, he said.

“There’s so much great work being done in our community … but we really think there’s an opportunity to better connect the dots,” Graham said.

“At that same time, there is a tremendous amount of criminal activity in retail stores as well, and that’s where we want to make sure that there is real strong relationships with the police, with prosecution, and … that there’s real consequences to those actions.”

Raymond Wyant, former chief judge of the Manitoba provincial court, spoke to the summit about the justice system and how it operates, and his perception of the role the courts can play in those broader solutions.

Wyant is an advocate for community courts, which marshal resources around mental health and addictions issues, homelessness and poverty. They also provide services to people in a way intended to end the revolving court-jail door.

Where community courts are used, such as in New York, they’ve had “a tremendous effect” in managing people’s risks, keeping them out of the justice system, reducing crime rates and enhancing public confidence, he said in an interview following his address to the summit.

“There are a lot of complicated reasons why crime is going up, but as a community, I think there’s solutions to that. We need to work together,” he said.

Graham hopes in the coming weeks there will be some concrete action plans for all the different groups involved.

At D’Arcy’s A.R.C. thrift store, Burnham said that, despite the province’s efforts, the manpower isn’t there for police to cover every theft.

“I don’t know what they can do,” she said. “It’s not like it used to be, you know. And that’s a problem.”