Winnipeg police to step up Scrap Metal Act enforcement

Winnipeg police say they are cracking down on thefts of copper and alleged violations of a provincial law that punishes scrap metal dealers who buy stolen goods.

The unions for Winnipeg firefighters and Manitoba Hydro workers, as well as people who live near homeless encampments, and the opposition Tories had demanded the law be better enforced.

They’ve said the copper wire fires and cable theft that put them and the public at risk will stop once the purchasers are charged under the Scrap Metal Act and stop buying stolen copper.

The purpose of the law, which took effect in 2022, is to deter thieves from stealing public and private property, then selling it as scrap metal, a Winnipeg Police Service spokesman said Thursday, adding officers are currently probing alleged violations of the law.

He confirmed there have not been any charges laid under the law since 2023, when police swooped down on a scrapyard in Springfield in relation to catalytic converter thefts.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said this week the industry “in general, has been good to work with” but police are pursuing “the bad actors.”

“We want to be able to support them in cracking down on it,” he said.

The law prohibits a person from selling a catalytic converter or such things as metallic wire that has had insulation or casing removed from it, unless they can provide proof of ownership to the dealer at the time of the transaction.

It requires a scrap metal dealer to obtain proof of identification from the seller and retain records about the transaction, limit cash purchases of scrap metal and provide regular reports to law enforcement agencies.

“They have a clear picture of how these thefts are impacting communities and they have a clear sense of which businesses or who’s supporting this kind of illegal activity,” Wiebe said.

“When it comes to theft, when it comes to any kind of organized crime — and certainly that could be the case when it comes to this kind of scrap metal or copper thefts — they’ve got the support of the provincial government and they know that we’re going to continue to support their efforts to crack down on this.”

The toxic smoke from wire fires at a nearby urban encampment prompted neighbour Howard Warren to publicly call for enforcement of the Scrap Metal Act. He said the illegal burns would stop if there were no longer a market for the ill-gotten copper wire.

The United Firefighters of Winnipeg expressed concern about the health hazards of toxic smoke from people burning wires and cables to get at valuable copper.

Troy Craig, the business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034, said people who try to steal copper wire from Manitoba Hydro sites have been electrocuted.

“If they don’t have a market to sell it into, then it goes away,” Craig said about the potentially deadly problem.

Progressive Conservative justice critic Wayne Balcaen, a former police chief, said last week that scrap metal dealers needed to be checked to ensure they’re obeying the law.

Activist Sel Burrows said a crackdown should result in a reduction in the number of fires in vacant houses. The former North Point Douglas resident said he’s had two landlords tell him that their properties have been torched just for the copper wires inside.

“Homeless people will be encouraged to break in and light a fire or have a fire happen. Then, in the week or so after, people will go in and strip all the copper out of the house,” Burrows said Thursday.

“We have laws that are really good laws, but they have to be enforced —and it’s not just the police, it’s bylaw enforcement and various inspection systems,” said Burrows, who founded the Powerline to encourage North Point Douglas residents to anonymously report criminal activity.

“This is a principle of crime prevention: the bad guys, the people who commit crime, stop doing it as soon as they get caught doing it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the neighbour who raised the alarm about hazardous smoke from encampment wire fires said this week that there have been no recent toxic blazes. However, Warren said, the “chaos” continues nearby.

“What has been going on is random 24-hours-a-day hammering, sawing, chopping in the forest directly in front of our house as the encampment here continues to grow in size and chaos,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca