During the past two years, the province's prosecution services purged old but still active warrants.

Charges laid and warrants issued were erased under the process.

"There (were) a lot of warrants. (Some) as many as 30 years old. Some with people who were deceased (or) not living in Manitoba," said Andrew Swan, the province's justice minister.

Swan wouldn't say Wednesday how many outstanding warrants were tossed out, or who made the call to purge them, or whether victims were notified.

CTV News has learned that the warrants were all issued before 1999 and the crimes did not involve serious bodily harm. The suspects had also not re-offended in at least 12 years.

The provincial opposition, however, is criticizing the purge.

"It still sends the message that these crimes aren't important and that the victims aren't important," said Kelvin Goertzen, justice critic.

The Winnipeg Police Association is upset by the warrants being tossed out.

It doesn't believe officers were consulted and estimates there could be thousands of warrants now gone. The police association also said it sends criminals the wrong message.

"You can just go across the country and rotate through the entire nation and by the time you got back to the first one, your warrants have been deleted. Is that really what we are saying to the public in the justice system?" asked Mike Sutherland, president of the Winnipeg Police Association.

The province insists both public safety and justice issues were considered.

"I think what's more important is that our resources be used to bring to justice those who are an actual threat to public safety. It's less of a counting exercise of how many shoplifting offences there were in 1977," said Andrew Swan.

The police association and provincial opposition, however, want more answers. The association is looking at filing an Access to Information request to get details on the numbers of warrants if the province doesn't release information.

The police association said the purge could affect cases in the future since evidence, such as DNA, is normally destroyed after a charge is stayed.

- with a report from CTV's Stacey Ashley