Wes Taylor MLA
Battle River-Wainwright
There are few in the riding who have not been touched by the recent upsurge in crime. Far too many are direct victims, and almost everyone knows personally a victim or the victim’s family.
Back in November, the UCP pressed the NDP for an emergency debate on the topic. We presented written testimony from victims, many of them present in the public gallery. However, the Speaker, NDP MLA Bob Wanner said the UCP request, “…did not meet the emergency criteria.” Indeed, the NDP denied an emergency existed.
Just how bad do things have to be to qualify as an emergency?
In 2015/16 rural crime rates in parts of Alberta have jumped more than 80 per cent. In September of 2017 the Killam RCMP Detachment statistics showed break and enters up by 19 per cent in their area.
Twelve of Canada’s 50 most dangerous places for crime are now in Alberta.
Albertans will remember that, also back in November, the UCP asked for an emergency debate on the Trans Mountain project. This to the NDP sloughed off. Since that refusal the NDP have performed a major U-turn and are now adopting ideas advocated by the UCP as evidenced in the recent Throne speech.
I am happy to report that on the topic of rural crime the NDP performed yet another U-turn. They have at least now acknowledged the rural crime problem. They have had plenty of warning.
I personally wrote to the NDP Minister of Justice, Kathleen Ganley, back in March 2017, as did the Mayor of Amisk, Bill Rock whose village, and surrounding area, had been hit by a plague of crime.
I did not receive even the courtesy of a reply, let alone a remedy. In addition, no one from Minister Ganley’s staff accepted the invites from the village of Amisk to come and see their problems first hand.
I arranged our constituency’s first Town Hall back in February of 2017 in Hardisty and a subsequent Town Hall was held in Killam in June of 2017.
In March 2017 the Wildrose set up its Rural Crime Task Force. This group held numerous Town Halls throughout Alberta and used the information and feedback from our Town Halls and its own as evidence in the UCP request for an emergency debate. This debate was, as mentioned, denied.
In late September 2017 concerned constituents on the Highway 13 corridor arranged a meeting in Rosyth Hall. From this meeting the East 13 Rural Crime Watch organization came into being. I’d like to take a moment to thank the following individuals who volunteered to be part of this group and are seeking to take action where their government wouldn’t:
Blake Moser (President), Brian Golka (Vice President), Orrin Ford (Vice President), Gina Vetter (Secretary), Connie Wahlstrom (Treasurer) Angela Large, Bill Rock, Bob Scott, Corinne Butt, Daardi Almberg, Kent Swanson, Marilyn Horn, Patti Hovde, Penny Clark.
Perhaps the lobbying paid off as, finally, on 9 March 2018, the NDP Minister of Justice, Kathleen Ganley, announced a “7 point action plan” designed to address a topic which, according to the NDP, was not an emergency 3 months ago.
While, of course, I welcome the NDPs acknowledgement of the problem, I must point out how slow they have been to react. Having finally reacted I am disappointed by the scale and scope of the response.
The UCP decision not to support this current proposal predicated on the understanding that the proposal is purely smoke and mirrors. In point-of-fact the reality is that it is A - too little and B - too late.
Take for example the promise to hire an additional 10 Crown prosecutors.
This sounds like good news, but the reality is 21 Crown Prosecutors have left the role in last 12 months. Therefore, the NDP is not even back filling vacancies, let alone enhancing the service. These resignations did not occur all at once. The pattern of falling morale was emerging, if but the Minister of Justice and her staff could be bothered to notice.
The NDP also promised an additional 39 RCMP officers. That may sound like a significant number, but it really is not. Last year the Saskatchewan government decided to hire an additional 258 officers to address their similar problem. That is nearly 7 times as many officers as the NDP are proposing.
Crucially, because of their delay, these promised extra police officers cannot possibly be in place and, more crucially, effective for at least 1 and a half years.
We all acknowledge that the RCMP currently in place are striving manfully to be effective and efficient. Indeed, I hear no complaints from constituents regarding actions taken by the RCMP, only observations regarding the woefully thin numbers available on the ground.
Who is responsible for these low numbers? The honest answer is successive governments.
Nevertheless, who now is responsible for the absence of an urgent response to the clear and progressively increasing rise in danger and decrease in capability to combat it?
The answer is the NDP.
The NDP took over $1 billion from Albertans via a carbon tax in 2017. Does anybody know on what they are spending your money? It is clearly not on law and order – and neither has it bought a “social licence.”
Roll on 2019.