Yesterday (April 25), the United Conservative Party criticized the NDP government on the issue of crime in rural communities.

Airdrie MLA and Shadow Minister For Justice Angela Pitt sent a statement saying that her party has been pushing the NDP for two years to address the problem with little to no results.

Members of the RCMP and the Alberta Government at the Rural Crime funding announcement in March (Photo Courtesy: Government of Alberta)

Although the government announced more funding to rural crime officers and the creation of a crime reduction unit back in March, Pitt said it should have happened sooner.

“This situation isn’t letting up and the fact that the NDP Government took two years to try and address this is quite concerning. Geez, it takes two years to get an RCMP Officer up and trained and into the communities.”

However, Cameron Westhead, the NDP MLA for Banff-Cochrane said his government has been making progress in addressing rural crime.

“We’re actually already seeing some positive signs that this is working. I’m really proud that we’re taking action on this. The UCP doesn’t seem to want to address the issue, all they want to do is talk about it.”

Westhead said when it comes to hiring more officers, it takes time, but the government is working in conjunction with the RCMP to find out what needs they have in these rural communities and providing the funding necessary to help them.

He gave an example of how the government’s initiatives have helped some rural Albertans.

“In the Vegreville areas, there was a chop shop bust that recovered stolen property from the Vegreville, Two Hills and Vermillion areas. They’re saying that this is a direct result of the new initiatives that was just brought in in March, specifically the implementation of the Crime Reduction Unit.”

For Pitt, however, she said rural residents in her riding are still feeling unsafe and they need more action from the government.

“Certainly those residents that live between Airdrie and Cochrane are extremely frustrated and they’re scared. Even if they haven’t been personally affected, which is actually very rare, they know somebody that has been and they know somebody that has been broken into multiple times.”

Under the NDP’s increased spending for RCMP officers, they project to hire around 39 new officers in rural communities across the province.

 

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