Alberta Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer has spent September visiting communities, including Airdrie, and talking with Albertans about their thoughts on rural crime.  

Now, he's planning on spending October doing the same thing.  Schweitzer has announced that his 'talking rural crime' towhall tour, where he meets with residents, business owners, rural crime watch groups and officials about the issue of rural crime in Alberta will last until October 29th.  

Though he's extended his tour for another month, Schweitzer said while he was in Airdrie that he was hearing basically the same feedback from most of the communities that have been part of the tour to date.  "To be frank, the feedback we've received from communities is actually pretty consistent.  People feel like there's not enough police officers on the ground, they're frustrated with the justice system as a revolving door.  So we want to talk to them about our strategies on how we're going to tackle this on all fronts."

Schweitzer's townhall meetings began on September 5th and were to wrap up on September 30th.  Instead, meetings will be held in seven more communities until October 29th with more dates and locations likely to be added.  It was something Schweitzer alluded to at the townhall in Airdrie.  "We've been to almost every corner of Alberta at this point in our tour.  We've had a few more communities reach out that want to have us come out and talk to them about rural crime.  It's a huge issue in every community we're visiting across Alberta."

"We want to listen to communities and let them know we're dedicated to this," Schweitzer explains.  "Also we want to make sure we reach out and make sure out budget this fall reflects the realities of rural Alberta.  So we're going out and talking to as many communities as we can to make sure that our priorities reflect their reality."

Any Albertans who are unable to attend one fo the townhall meetings can now give their feedback through an online survey.  You'll find it here. The survey will run until October 31st and covers issues such as community safety and policing and crime-reduction matters.

Following are the additional locations and dates that have been added so far:

  • Tuesday, October 1st: Okotoks 
  • Wednesday, October 2nd: Fort Saskatchewan 
  • Wednesday, October 9th: Camrose 
  • Tuesday, October 15th: Leduc 
  • Tuesday, October 15th: Maskwacis
  • Friday, October 25th: Rocky Mountain House 
  • Tuesday, October 29th: St. Paul 

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