The RCMP is still dealing with mental health calls, drug activity, and more traffic offences in Port Hawkesbury.
Staff Sargeant David Morin provided an update during the regular monthly meeting of Port Hawkesbury Town Council last night.
Of the six positions in the town, Morin said two are vacant positions, with one member scheduled to arrive in June, and another soft vacancy with a member who has been off for about two-and-a-half months.
Of the top 25 offenses, Morin said he doesn’t see any big changes between 2022 and 2023 in an area covering the town and southern Inverness County.
Morin said in 2023 there 1,545 calls with 1,153 of those coming from the town.
Mental health and well-being calls continue to take up a lot of time, said Morin.
Town Councillor Jason Aucoin said there are a lot more needles being found around the town.
Another number that Morin pointed to was traffic related calls which went up from 17 in 2022 to 40 in 2023.
In 2022, Morin said 16 drivers were charged with speeding in Port Hawkesbury, of those 10 were on Reeves Street. In 2023, Morin said nine people were caught driving over the posted limit, with four of those taking place in Reeves Street.
Overall, there were 10 warnings issued in the town, with eight on Reeves Street in 2022, Morin said, noting that in 2023 there were 22 in Port Hawkesbury, with 21 of those detected on Reeves Street.
As for collisions in 2022, Morin said there were 22 in town, with 12 on Reeves Street. In 2023, he said there were 18 collisions and of those, 10 took place on Reeves Street.
In going over the statistics, Morin reported there were 27 parking lot collisions in Port Hawkesbury over the past year.
In 2022, Morin said four people were charged with impaired driving in the town, and in 2023 that number was five.
Town Councillor Blaine MacQuarrie said he’s received complaints about vehicles with modified exhaust system and he said the parking lot in front of and behind SAERC has become a problem area.
Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton said traffic safety is a common complaint, specifically vehicles driving too fast and motorized vehicles on Active Transportation lanes.
The mayor said council will go over their priorities and send them along to the RCMP, but she expects they will be similar to last year, notably traffic complaints, drug abuse and trafficking, as well as more community involvement by the RCMP.