Wikwemikong tribal police report 40% spike in arrests

Crime figures have increased in Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island; however, police say the spike in numbers is a sign of progress on their strategic plan.

Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service recently released its crime data, showing a sharp increase in arrests.

“Our volume of calls has only gone up four per cent from 2024 to 2025,” said police chief Ron Gignac.

“However, our people charged by police in comparison to 2024 to 2025 has gone up 40 per cent.”

Gignac said the spike in numbers are a product of proactive policing through the implementation of the service’s three-year strategic plan.

He said the concept for the plan began when he took over as chief in 2024.

“The strategic plan here was developed, in concert with community consultation, police intelligence and what were the emerging trends that we know that we’re going to be facing in the times to come,” he said.

The plan also includes the new offender management program, which uses data to track repeat offenders in real-time.

“If they’ve been a recidivist criminal and we’re going to monitor them, whether or not you’re monitored by an ankle bracelet, you’ve been released on judicial authorizations or conditions, you’re now in our program,” Gignac said.

Drug arrests up 309%

“Initially, we had an 80 per cent noncompliance rate. Now we’re the other way around. We’re anywhere from 80 to 85 per cent compliance.”

As of December 2024, following the implementation of its community drug strategy, officials said drug dealer arrests went up 309 per cent, compared to April 2023 to May 2024.

“A lot of those individuals that we arrested were not residents, nor were they citizens, of Wikwemikoong Unceded Territory,” he said.

“They were from the Greater Toronto Region, Sudbury, Nipissing, York Region, Niagara Region, just to name a few.”

Youth crime, however, trended downward, with a decrease of 34 per cent for teenage boys and 15 per cent for teenage girls in 2025.

“We’re really working hard on our youth engagement,” he said.

“We have a speaker series where we bring in subject matter experts on resiliency for First Nations, we brought a former CFL star in last autumn. We do all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile safety presentations at our schools where we (had) the last parent/teacher interview night.”

Gignac said the ultimate goal of the strategic plan isn’t higher arrest numbers, but a permanent shift toward long-term safety.