RCMP almost ready to launch units to investigate human trafficking in N.B.

The New Brunswick RMCP is on track to keep its promise to launch a specialized unit by the end of this year to investigate a rising number of human-trafficking reports in the province.

When the provincial government pledged nearly $3 million in November to hire and train 14 officers to investigate sexual violence and human trafficking, the target start date for the service was less than two months away.

The inspector leading the efforts, Marie-Eve Mackenzie-Plante, said most of the agents have been identified, and some are being transferred from outside the province.

She said the force is still on track to have the first team set up in a women's shelter in Shediac. Two other units are also planned, one in Tracadie in the northeast and the other in Oromocto in south-central New Brunswick.

When he made the provincial funding announcement, Robert Gauvin, the public safety minister, was eager to see the new units up and running.

"I would open it today if I could," he said. "We need to make sure we have the right agents."

Mackenzie-Plante said many of the officers who will be working in the unit, whose names have not been announced, already come with trauma-informed training they'll use to support victims from the time they report a crime, through to potential testimony in court.

"To have investigators that can corroborate everything that the survivor says, we’re likely going to see an increase in charges being laid and an increase in convictions," she said.

A Statistics Canada report released earlier this month shows the number of reported human-trafficking cases in Canada jumped from 200 in 2014 to more than 600 in 2024. In that 10-year span, 10 per cent of cases resulted in a guilty finding.

New Brunswick had 17 reported incidents in 2024.

Last year, the province's rate was 2.0 per 100,000 people. That surpasses the national average rate of 1.5 incidents and represents the highest rate reported in this province since the 1990s.

Some cases described in the report involve the exploitation of people for sexual reasons, but the crimes being reported also include victims being forced into labour markets.

Eighty-five per cent of human-trafficking victims who reported the crime in the past 10 years were women or girls, and two-thirds of them were under 25 years old.

Mackenzie-Plante said three constables and a corporal will be stationed in Shediac, and similar numbers are planned for Tracadie and Oromocto, which she hopes to have staffed for the new year as well.