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Minister of Justice hosts Airdrie rural crime town hall

RuralCrimeTownHall
Minister of Justice Doug Schweitzer (centre), along with Airdrie MLAs Peter Guthrie (left) and Angela Pitt (right), heard from residents on the topic of rural crime during a town hall at Airdrie Agriculture Centre Sept. 20. Photo by Ben Sherick/Rocky View Publishing

With questions swirling about the provincial government’s commitment to fighting rural crime, rural residents in the Airdrie area had an opportunity to raise their concerns and frustrations when Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Doug Schweitzer hosted a town hall event Sept. 20 at the Airdrie Agriculture Centre.

The event was part of Schweitzer’s Rural Crime Tour, which he said is meant to allow the government listen to Albertans on the topic of rural crime and demonstrate its commitment to combating crime in less-populated areas.

“[Rural crime] is a huge issue in every community that we’re visiting across Alberta,” he said.

Schweitzer added the tour is meant to communicate the government’s commitment to implementing campaign promises, including hiring 50 new prosecutors, providing additional funding to the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team to pursue organized crime concerns, and dealing with addiction issues that are often the root causes of crime.

“We’re going out and talking to as many communities as we can right now to make sure our priorities reflect their realities,” Schweitzer said. “The feedback we’ve been receiving is actually giving us an immense amount of new ideas that we can go back to our department with to make sure that we have the right priorities.”

The United Conservative Party (UCP) government’s commitment to fighting rural crime has recently been called into question, however. A Sept. 18 press release from the NDP caucus challenged a possible shift to a cost-recovery model for police funding, claiming it amounts to cuts to police funding of up to 70 per cent by the government.

“Currently, policing services are covered in full by the provincial government for these municipalities, which represent 20 per cent of Alberta’s population. But the UCP government, which campaigned on getting tough on crime, is now looking at downloading much of the cost to taxpayers,” the press release said.

Schweitzer countered, saying the UCP government will “be investing more money in policing, not less.” He also said the government has not decided if a new police-costing model will be adopted, but if it is implemented, the money will be reinvested into the impacted communities.

“The one thing we’ve made very clear to municipalities is that if we’re asking the smaller municipalities, in particular, to contribute to police costing here in Alberta, every single one of those dollars is going to go right back into the community for additional policing, not less, and not to fund other priorities.”

Rural crime remains a concern locally, according to Elise Shorting, general manager of Days Inn Calgary North Balzac, who attended the town hall.

“We have seen, since building the hotel, an active criminal presence in our area,” she said. “In sharing comments with our business community there…we are actively talking about the crime that happens in our area.”

Shorting said forums like the town hall are necessary to keep the conversation alive, but expressed a desire to see them presented more often.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the more that we bring our concerns to a larger audience, hopefully, the more attention they’ll get,” she said.

Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie said the fact that the town hall was so well attended – despite being held before noon on a Friday – shows local rural residents are passionate about the topic. During the event, residents expressed a level of frustration with the status quo in regards to rural crime, and Schweitzer said he’s seen similar things throughout the tour.

“It’s sad that we’ve gotten to this point where people have lost faith in the justice system, where, in many instances, people feel like they have to rely on themselves. They’re voicing legitimate frustration at these town halls,” he said. “That message has been received loud and clear by our MLAs across Alberta.”



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