High crime rates also plague northern provincial regions, StatsCan finds

This map shows that northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan have a lot in common with the three territories in rates of police-reported crime. But their findings for northern Quebec do not contain distinguish between Nunavik and a vast swathe of territory that they deem to be part of the “Provincial North.”

A new report from Statistics Canada, released May 5, shows that high crime rates plague the northern regions of the provinces almost as much as they plague the three northern territories.

“About 6 per cent of Canadians live in the northern provincial regions, but these areas accounted for 12 per cent of police-reported criminal incidents in 2013,” the report said.

StatsCan found that northern Saskatchewan suffered the highest crime rate of all northern regions in 2013, with 54,978 incidents per 100,000.

The Northwest Territories came second in 2013 with 45,763 incidents per 100,00, Nunavut third with 32,345 per 100,000, and northern Manitoba fourth with 31,225 per 100,000.

The study, however, does not provide a clear definition of “Provincial North,” the term they use to represent the northern regions of the provinces.

For example, the line they use to delineate “Northern Ontario” from “Southern Ontario” appears to follow a line that runs from the Ottawa Valley town of Pembroke to Gravenhurst, just north of Toronto.

That means many large towns and cities, such as North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, are included in their numbers for the Ontario provincial North.

And “northern Quebec” is delineated by a line that puts big towns like Saguenay, Val d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda into that province’s “provincial North,” as well as the Lower North Shore.

For that reason, crime rates for Nunavik and the James Bay Cree territory appear to be lumped in with a vast swathe of more southerly communities that StatsCan deems to be part of the North.

Nunavik statistics that the Kativik Regional Police Force presented to the Kativik Regional Government council in 2013, the year covered by the StatsCan survey, showed that incidents of violent crime are increasing.

But that Nunavik-specific blip is not reflected in StatsCan’s numbers for “Northern Quebec,” which, along with “Northern Ontario,” reported “relatively low crime rates.”

Overall, the report found that rates of violent offences among adults aged 19 to 54 were “significantly greater” in the North compared with the South.

Adult rates of violent crime were nine times higher than the South in the three territories and about three times higher in the provincial North.

The report also found that a large proportion of adults aged 25 and older in the North were involved in offences that are usually attributed to youth in the South.

“For example, mischief, a crime frequently perpetrated by youth and young adults (under age 25) in the South, was more likely to be perpetrated by adults (over the age of 25) in the Provincial North and territories,” the report said.