NORTH BATTLEFORD - The annual Statistics Canada report on the Crime Severity Index (CSI) across Canada scheduled to be released July 25 is expected to look a little different this year.
The City of North Battleford said in a statement Tuesday that the annual crime data release will be "significantly different" this year, compared to previous years, after what the city says was a "push for changes" by 11 Western Canadian municipalities.
The city reports that a number of communities raised issues about the Crime Severity Index, and Statistics Canada is making a series of changes to its report as a result.
The eleven Western Canadian communities that participated in a conference in Saskatoon on Feb. 29 worked directly with Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police "to further outline the impacts on communities which are consistently identified as the top-ranked communities by Crime Severity Index weights."
The city notes Statistics Canada confirmed changes have been made to mitigate the concerns outlined by the communities as well as Indigenous leadership that took part in the conference.
"We are very encouraged that Statistics Canada took the concerns our municipalities brought forward at our conference in Saskatoon very seriously, and we look forward to seeing the outcome of those discussions," North Battleford Mayor David Gillan said.
Statistics Canada's annual data release from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, which includes the Crime Severity Index date, will be coming out this Thursday.
The CSI rates communities based on violent offences, non-violent offences, and the overall CSI (all offences combined) that factors in volume and severity of crimes.
As reported in SaskToday last year, according to the 2022 CSI ranking data, North Battleford recorded an overall CSI of 557.1 for communities with a population of 10,000 or more, leading the pack as the most dangerous city in Canada for its category.
The city along with many similarly-sized municipalities with populations closer to 10,000 previously expressed concerns the rankings unfairly skewed smaller municipalities against significantly larger centres, like Toronto, giving an inaccurate view of their crime numbers comparatively overall.
- with files from Lisa Joy
