Members of the federal Conservative party are urging Ottawa to take rural crime more seriously, arguing that the Liberal government is failing to offer concrete solutions.
Speaking in Edmonton May 23, Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs said rural crime is not a priority of the federal Liberals, pointing to a recent Public Safety Committee report that she said offered no recommendations to address the issue.
“I think the outcome of motion M-167 (a study of rural crime in Canada) and the result of that committee confirms without a shadow of a doubt that the federal Liberal government does not care about rural Canada, and particularly does not care about rural Albertans,” she said.
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The public safety committee, which is largely made up of Liberal MPs, spent months studying rural crime and hearing testimony from victims, but only came back with a three-page report that Stubbs said offered zero solutions.
The report encouraged provinces to spend more on emergency-response services and dispatch centres, as well as ways for the RCMP to partner with other police forces.
“The Liberals have a hug-a-thug, soft-on-crime approach, and are going exactly in the wrong direction,” Stubbs said. “They evaded responsibility and dismissed the real work called on them in this motion.”
The governing Liberals, however, are defending their stance on rural crime.
Scott Bardsley, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Safety, said in an email the government has undertaken a series of measures that it says will help combat rural crime.
He said it has increased RCMP’s annual funding by almost $700 million since it was elected, and is providing $200 million more for efforts that combat gang and gun violence.
“The RCMP enrolled over 1,100 new cadets in 2017-18,” he said. “That’s almost triple the number from five years earlier, reversing the cuts to training made by the Harper government.”
Bardsley said the government renewed the auxiliary program, which lets unarmed and specially trained volunteers participate in public safety activities, as well as expanded the reserve program, which allows the RCMP to hire former police officers to temporarily address member vacancies and provide mentoring to new officers.
Despite the efforts, Stubbs said more should be done.
Conservatives on the committee wrote in a separate report that they want tougher rules on repeat offenders, more electronic monitoring of offenders on release and clearer self-defence laws.
Party leader Andrew Scheer has also promised more money for police equipment and youth gang prevention if elected.
On the question of using reasonable force as self defence, Conservative members said self-defence needs to be better defined in the criminal code.
“What does (the wording in the code) mean in practicality? How do you navigate that?” said Glen Motz, Conservative MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner.
“I think clarity of code and language and some commonsense application needs to be applied. I think it’s important, as a Conservative government, we pursue that so we don’t re-victimize people over and over again.”
Murray Phillips, a councillor with the County of Two Hills, spoke about crime in his community.
He said thefts have gone up and there are fewer RCMP officers working in his detachment, making people feel unsafe.
As well, he said, offenders have re-committed crimes shortly after being released on bail.
“We need tougher sentences for these people. It’s a joke,” said Phillips, who also farms.
“On our personal farm, we’ve been vandalized. In the community, we’ve seen windows smashed. If you lock fuel tanks, they smash the lock. If you lock the fuel tank on your equipment, they drill a hole in the bottom of it.”
He said his wife and children don’t feel safe when he’s working in the field all day.
“These criminals are so brazen and bold, they’ll come at 9 a.m. and steal anything they want.”
Bardsley said the federal government has begun preparing its response to the committee’s report and the response will be made public once completed.
