Crime Prevention Funding Announcement

Remarks by
The Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety

Surrey, British Columbia
November 8, 2007
As delivered

Thank you, Nina [Nina Grewal, Member of Parliament for Fleetwood—Port Kells, British Columbia]. It is great to be here in Surrey.

We were at a wonderful breakfast this morning, and I can see some of those same individuals here right now. Hello to you all. I'm also pleased to see some of my colleagues here as well. And, it's always a delight to see your Mayor, Dianne Watts.

Mayor Watts is somebody who is vitally concerned about what happens in this beautiful city. She is out in front on all the issues and she does a great job of tracking us politicians down to make sure we deal with the important issues.

Nina, you continue to represent this area well. You speak vigorously about the things that matter most to people right here.

Mark Warawa [Member of Parliament for Langley], it's great to see you here too. Mark is equally passionate about the things that are dear to the hearts and minds of the people in this area.

One of these areas is our safety and our security. For us – and I believe for any level of government – the most important responsibility is the safety and security of our citizens. If we can't bring that into focus, then everything else fades away. That is where we link arms provincially and municipally to make sure that we have communities, streets and school grounds that are safe.

We have taken a number of important steps since we have been the new government. Some of the initiatives on which we have moved forward are in the area of law enforcement. For example, we've increased the funds across the country so that we can begin to hire 1,000 more RCMP personnel. That's going to be federally funded.

We're also in the middle of negotiations right now with the provinces and territories for an increase of 2,500 officers at the municipal level across the country.

We want to increase resources in as many areas as we can – whether it is at our borders, in areas like cyber crime, for the RCMP National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, or for fighting fraud.

We have been very concerned like you have, especially over the last few days, with what we've seen on the streets of the Lower Mainland. This type of gang and gun activity is something that we want to make sure we have the resources for from the federal level — that the men and women in uniform are out there working very aggressively to reduce this type of activity. We want that to continue, and we are assisting not just in the area of resources but also in terms of legislation.

You have probably heard about our comprehensive tackling violent crime bill that is now before the House of Commons. We've pulled together some of the most critical areas where we need to see a reduction in crime. For instance, our Dangerous Offenders Act can help keep serious repeat violent offenders in jail and away from the street where they can harm our citizens again.

We want to see our legislation go through that gives mandatory minimum sentences for people who commit crimes with firearms, especially repeat offenders.

This legislation would also raise the age of consent between a minor and an adult from 14 years old — one of the lowest in the world — to 16.

We are moving forward on the enforcement side. That's what we call "the long arm of the law."

But we also believe in "the open arms of the community," and that's where many of you come in. Groups that are able to reach out through education programs, awareness programs and preventative programs need to be acknowledged. You need to be assisted through funding to do what is so necessary for prevention, especially when it involves reaching out to young people at risk.

That is why this Government announced the National Anti-Drug Strategy where two thirds of $64 million will go to areas of awareness and education and treatment centres. About one third will go to enforcement.

We're also making funds available through the National Crime Prevention Centre. It's not about the federal government coming into an area and implementing a federally developed program. It's the local groups and agencies that are on the ground and know the needs in the area. It's these local groups that are quick to reach out to people at risk. Those groups often don't get the funding they need.

We are making the dollars available to projects geared to youth-at-risk, vulnerable families, programs dealing with issues relating to the Aboriginal community and programs dealing with reducing recidivism that happens with many offenders.

Right now, over the last several months around B.C. we have announced nine of these particular projects, locally developed and delivered to the tune of about $2.7 million.

There is one in this area that we announced several months ago with the Surrey School District and there are two more programs that we are announcing today. They are both innovative and locally developed and delivered.

One is through the Surrey School District. It is great to see Pam Glass here, a representative of the district and also a former Olympian. She, the Mayor and others are involved in the Olympian effort of reducing crime and preventing it. With individuals like this, we're going to reach those goals of a reduction in crime.

One of the programs receiving funding today is called iR3 [Intervention, Rethink, Refocus & Reintegrate]. They're going to be dealing with students who are facing first time suspensions because of possible drug activity and gang activity.

It is a very critical moment in the life of a young person when they are facing a suspension. There are two ways for them to go. There is the fork in the road. Often they are led and drawn into gangs because that is where they are accepted for their behaviour. And they feel that level of acceptance.

These individuals need to know that there is another way. And so, this program is designed specifically to redirect young people at a very vulnerable and critical moment in their lives. We've got $249,000 going toward that effort.

Mayor Watts and the police officers, Superintendent (Fraser) McCrae and others, have come up with some very innovative ways to deal with car theft. For the NASCARS (Never Again Steal CARS) project,we have about $99,000.

I am pleased to announce these two programs. Both are going to reach out to youth-at-risk. We hope to see a reduction in crime in those areas because of these programs and because of the innovative people who are bringing them into being.

Thanks very much for being here today and being part of that.