‘We’ve been waiting for this’: RCMP charge former Gilbert Plains CAO with theft, fraud

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This article was published 23/01/2025 (231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A municipality’s former chief administrative officer, already sued for allegedly stealing more than $500,000, has now been charged criminally.

Amber Fisher, 40, was arrested by RCMP on Jan. 16. She had been under investigation by RCMP since 2022, after the Municipality of Gilbert Plains made a fraud complaint.

Municipal officials learned last Friday police would move ahead with charges against their former colleague, Gilbert Plains Reeve James Manchur said by phone Thursday.

“We’ve been waiting for this announcement to be made, so we are happy that it finally came out,” Manchur said. “We are still not at the point where it has all totally ended. There is still the court date to wait for in March, and we’re hoping that will bring more closure for us.”

RCMP said Fisher, who lives in the Rural Municipality of Grandview, has been charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and use of proceeds knowing it was obtained by the commission of an offence.

“It’s definitely a good milestone to get to, but it’s still got to go to court and get through that process,” Cst. Ricky Perkins, who works with the Manitoba RCMP’s cyber and financial crime unit, said of the charges.

“In this case, with this being a smaller community and the amount of money we are talking about here, it’s quite impactful … I certainly hope it does send a message to prevent people from making (similar) decisions and going down that path,” Perkins said.

Gilbert Plains is located 360 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, with a population of about 1,600.

The investigation involved numerous witness statements, along with the obtaining and review of extensive financial records and other reports, RCMP said in a Thursday news release.

Perkins noted investigators are still awaiting the results of outstanding production orders from financial institutions that may provide additional evidence.

Such court orders require a person or organization to provide documents, data and records to law enforcement.

Gilbert Plains sent out a letter to residents explaining the situation in November 2022.

Last year, a court ordered Fisher’s wages be garnished after Gilbert Plains successfully sued her in the Court of King’s Bench. The court issued a default judgment against her in November 2023, after she failed to mount a defence to the lawsuit.

Fisher is accused in the court papers of making 33 electronic transfers of more than $15,000 from the municipality’s account to her own over the course of about 11 months.

The notice of garnishment was for $548,758.03. The judgment ordered Fisher to pay $525,000, plus annual interest of five per cent and costs.

Fisher began working at the municipality in 2018 and was named its highest-ranking bureaucrat in 2020.

On July 28, 2021, Fusion Credit Union notified Gilbert Plains officials of “substantial outflows” from the municipality’s bank account to an account at another credit union in Fisher’s name, the statement of claim said.

The municipality suspended Fisher on Aug. 3, 2021, as it investigated. She allegedly told the municipal council she was the victim of a “cyberattack” and officials began a fraud investigation. She was reinstated soon after and returned to work before being suspended again in May 2022.

A report by accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny completed in late 2022 found Fisher had transferred about $532,000 from the municipality to her bank account. She was fired after the report was completed.

Perkins said approximately $500,000 of the missing funds remain unrecovered. He could not elaborate on if, or how, the money may have been spent.

The incident sparked change within the municipal office, with Manchur saying Gilbert Plains has since replaced much of its administrative staff and enacted safeguards within the financial reporting process.

The Manitoba Municipal Administrators organization also created a new professional code of conduct for its members and set up a formal complaint process and enforcement policy in 2023.

One member has been expelled since the policy was enacted: former RM of North Cypress-Langford CAO Trisha Dawn Fraser.

Fraser, 36, was fired last year from her role as a top bureaucrat after she pleaded guilty to misappropriating municipal funds to replace $30,000 she’d stolen from the Carberry Curling Club while serving as its treasurer.

Statements from the RM of Lakeshore, located about 50 kilometres east of Gilbert Plains, suggest a similar scandal involving municipal administrators is brewing there.

A news release — published Dec. 4 and signed by acting reeve Michael Brunen and interim chief administrative officer Robert Poirier — said the municipality placed its CAO and assistant CAO on an indefinite leave of absence in October. The statement does not name either person involved.

“For some time council was aware of serious administrative deficiencies within the office,” the statement said. “Further information in regard to all that has transpired during this difficult time will be released once known.”

It said an accounting firm was hired to review “specific financial issues and areas of concern” and RCMP were contacted.

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RCMP did not confirm whether it had launched an investigation or laid charges.

The RM of Lakeshore did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

The Manitoba Municipal Administrators released a statement the following day, noting the involved administrators were not members of the organization.

Duane Nicol, former president of the group, said it has asked the provincial government to amend legislation and create a licensure body for municipal administrators. Under current laws, every municipality must have a chief administrator, but the people in those positions are not required to have any formal credentials.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.