For the first time in more than a decade, the Canadian crime rate has jumped from the previous year.

That’s one of the findings of Statistics Canada’s annual Crime Severity Index (CSI), which measures the frequency and severity of police-reported crime across the country.

Another finding?

While there was a five per cent increase nationally, the Yukon’s CSI dropped two per cent from where it was in 2014.

One area where the territory did see an increase was in property offences. According to Whitehorse RCMP Insp. Dan Austin, these were the most common crimes committed in the Yukon last year.

By StatsCan’s definition, property offences include fraud, possession of stolen property, theft over $5,000, identity fraud, motor vehicle theft and the most serious: breaking and entering.

The rate of B&Es peaked in Canada in the mid-’90s and had been on a steady decline since then, but spiked again this year. In the Yukon, that was reflected by a 40 per cent increase.

Austin said in a recent interview that because of the territory’s low population and StatsCan’s calculations being based on population per 100,000, a small number of incidents can have a big impact on numbers. (For instance, last year’s homicides declined in the Yukon, but will likely be affected by the July murder of Watson Lake resident Andy Giraudel.)

Still, Mike Pemberton, a local business owner and vice-chair of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, says breaking and entering is something chamber members deal with on a regular basis.

He says he hasn’t heard of any more or fewer break-ins than usual. However, he has heard from a number of members wanting better follow-up from the RCMP when it comes to B&Es.

“I think that’s very crucial,” he says.

The chamber represents 450 businesses, ranging from two-person operations, to organizations as big as Northwestel Inc.

Pemberton says proprietors tell the chamber that after initial investigations, they hear nothing.

When they try to follow up with the RCMP themselves, their messages often go unreturned.

“I don’t want to chastise the policing, but someone needs to be accountable for these cases,” says Pemberton.

Business owners understand that police can’t be in every community around the clock, he adds, but they still want more communication.

He says there have been informal conversations between the chamber and the RCMP in the past. The response is always the same: there aren’t enough staff.

That’s one thing that should change this year.

Justice Minister Brad Cathers says that by the end of 2016, 10 new positions will have been added to help with managing crime.

Five new positions have already been added to the recently expanded ed 911 service. That move should make it easier for rural Yukon communities to report crimes that might otherwise have gone unreported.

Cathers says he anticipates this will lead to a big jump in reporting, which will, in turn, lead to faster responses from fire, police and EMS.

As well, in April, the government announced funding for five new RCMP positions. Those include four front-line constables and one administrative support position to assist with the additional paperwork.

These employees will join the Yukon’s 134 police officers, 43 of whom are in Whitehorse. (Of these, 39 are uniformed, front-line officers).

Cathers said the $385,000 budget for the positions was approved at the end of May.

At that point, he wrote the federal government to request funding for the positions. (Policing is co-funded between the Yukon and federal governments.)

Cathers says there’s a possibility the federal government could choose not to approve the funding.

However, he says there had been departmental contact between the two levels of government before the announcement was made in the spring, and hiring should go ahead as expected.

“We’d be quite surprised if there were any issues with it,” he says, noting he anticipates the RCMP will begin the hiring process by the end of the year.

Cathers says new constables won’t be dedicated to particular crimes, but rather will join a general pool of personnel, directed to specific files and ad hoc groups as needed.

Something else that should help is getting community members involved in reporting, which Austin says is always a goal of the RCMP.

Cathers is hopeful that a newly-established Yukon Crime Stoppers Association will assist with that.

Along with the RCMP funding announced in April, the Yukon government allocated $21,000 to a tip line and website for a local Crime Stoppers operation – something the chamber of commerce asked for in December 2015.

There was a Crime Stoppers Society operational in the Yukon from the 1980s until 2011, with the Star publishing a column about wanted Yukoners each Friday.

However, the volunteer-run organization had trouble retaining volunteers, and board membership deteriorated. Prior to that, it reported receiving 40 tips a year.

Cathers says he expects the second incarnation to start up soon.

(The Star’s recent calls to Crime Stoppers, at both the local and national levels, were not returned.)

Community reporting will give officers the kind of heads-up Austin says the CSI stats don’t.

Austin says stats can be looked at to spot past trends, but don’t do much to help predict where to focus for the coming year.

(If breaking and entering is up one year, but down the next, a possible conclusion is that B&Es have dropped off because a number of the previous year’s perpetrators are in jail.)

In that way, Austin says the stats are mostly useful in terms of giving RCMP a snapshot of the crime in any given community in a single year.

And regardless of the numbers, he says the Yukon is a safe place to live.

Pemberton agrees.

“Nobody should be defensive about it,” he says.

“This is a great community. We all need to work together to keep it great ... we’re all in this together ... I know it’s a tough job, but there has to be an answer.”