For an announcement related to crime prevention in Newfoundland and Labrador

Remarks by the
Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety

St. John's, Newfoundland
July 7, 2008
As Delivered

Thank you, Fabian [Fabian Manning, Conservative Party Member of Parliament, Avalon].  Ladies and gentlemen, it’s great to be here and to see my colleagues.  I always enjoy coming to Newfoundland and Labrador. 

I’d like you to know that you have before you three of the strongest advocates, who I have had the opportunity to work with, from any province or territory in the country. Between Norm [Norman Doyle, Conservative Party Member of Parliament, St. John’s East], Loyola [Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Conservative Party Member of Parliament, St. John's South-Mount Pearl] and Fabian, the most important issues - the things that matter most to you -  are the topics that we hear about  in our Cabinet, Caucus and Committee meetings, and in the House of Commons.  These three gentlemen are some of the best representatives and strongest voices anywhere in the country. So I want to thank each of them for being such good examples of what representatives should be. In a formidable and gracious way, they are able to get things done for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

With regards to today’s announcement, my colleagues here understand the way you feel about criminal justice and the reform that we’ve implemented. It is a priority of the Government to have safe communities from coast to coast where our children can play on the streets and seniors can take walks in the evenings. 

We like to think of crime reduction as a two-pronged approach. First, there is what we call the long arm of the law, the necessary enforcement side.  That’s why, since we were elected over two years ago, we increased significantly the funding for the RCMP to allow for the hiring of a thousand more RCMP personnel from coast to coast. We fulfilled our promise to fund for up to 2,500 more municipal officers across the country by putting in place a $400 million fund that can be drawn on by provinces over a five-year period.  Each province can use all its allocated funds in the first year or draw from the fund on a yearly basis, depending on the provincial needs. 

And it’s not all just about having more officers. Officers can only be as effective as the system allows them to be. There have been many frustrating cases in past years where we have seen an overemphasis on the rights of criminals.
We recognize that every individual has rights, whether they are a law-abiding citizen or an offender, but there seemed to be too much focus on the rights of the criminal. We have responded by declaring that it’s time we had more of an emphasis on the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens.  That’s where we’ve seen quite a significant shift in our policy-making and in our resourcing.

This is why we have implemented legislation that requires mandatory sentencing for people who are repeat, serious and violent offenders so that they cannot receive very short sentences or get out of jail early. For example, we’ve brought in mandatory sentences for people who commit crimes with firearms. 

 We’ve also changed the age of consent between a minor and an adult from 14 — among the lowest in the world — to 16 years old so that police agencies have a greater ability to go after pedophiles on the internet who exploit children as young as 14. As you can see, we have made considerable progress on the enforcement side.

The second component of crime reduction is what we refer to as the open arms of the community. We’ve recognized that prevention is a very important aspect of the reform we want to see in criminal justice. If we are able to work with local police forces and community groups to identify beforehand the high-risk areas and high-risk individuals, then we will be able to greatly enhance crime prevention.

This is what today’s announcement is about.  Our National Crime Prevention Strategy is valued at $30 million and we are going straight to local communities to determine how best to allocate the funds.  We realize that as local organizations, agencies and groups, you understand best the issues affecting your communities. You know what the needs are. The Strategy works by allowing you, the community, to bring forward the plans that you think are going to work.  You can tell us what tools you will require to prevent crime and we’ll try and provide the resources.  The two words that I emphasize are “what works?”  You show us what works and we’ll do our best to fund it so that we can see crime reduced in our communities.

We have restructured this program to identify and target youth, families, and Aboriginal communities at risk. We are also focusing on the issue of gang activity.  The request that we’ve had from your province is for funding to develop tools that will help identify the people and the areas most at risk of becoming involved in crime.  If we can move forward to prevent crime before it happens, then we’re a long way ahead. 

The Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency has stated that it needs funds to be able to develop that tool, which will help determine what areas need to be targeted with crime prevention strategies.

Therefore, I’m announcing today a fund of $280,000 to go towards the Building Knowledge for Community Safety in Newfoundland and Labrador project. The project will gather crime data to determine risk factors in your communities so that resources can be put in place to help meet the needs of youth and families at risk.

I’m very pleased to know that the work is going to be done locally; the people who are going to be involved in this project are members of the community.  This project is going to be run on a local basis and the lessons that you will learn will not only be helpful here in your community, but also as you find out what works, you’ll be able to share your findings with other communities.  Other provinces will be looking with interest at what you’re doing here.

I want to thank each of my colleagues for their role in making this funding happen for their communities.  We’re excited to see this happen and I look forward to seeing the positive results in your communities.

Thanks so much for your dedication, to the police officers here, to the local agencies and to others who’ve committed themselves to see crime reduced in our communities. Thank you for being here and thank you for your attention.