Ganley slams Conservatives for their report on rural crime
EDMONTON Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley defended her government’s approach to combating rural crime Tuesday and criticized a report by provincial and federal Conservatives suggesting sweeping changes to rural law enforcement — including reviews of whether the RCMP is the right police force for rural Alberta.
During a speech in front of hundreds of delegates at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta fall convention, Ganley said rural property crime is down 11 per cent over last year.
The NDP government announced its rural crime reduction strategy in March in response to increases in crime in Alberta’s rural areas. The plan put $10 million toward new crime reduction units, prosecutors, RCMP officers, civilian employees and “data entry hubs” designed to save officers time filing reports.
On a media conference call Tuesday afternoon, Ganley took a jab at a report prepared by a task force of Conservative MPs and UCP MLAs suggesting Alberta take a broad look at its options for rural policing models.
The 28-page report, titled Toward a Safer Alberta: Addressing Rural Crime, was released in October after a round of consultations with rural residents frustrated about long RCMP response times in rural areas.
Among other things, the report suggested a review of the “sufficiency of RCMP contract policing ” and whether it should be “revised, replaced by expanded regional policing models, a fully empowered provincial police service, the creation of a dedicated RCMP rural crime task force, or through the augmentation of the authority of other law enforcement agencies.”
It acknowledge that changes to the RCMP model would bring “challenges” due to Canada’s “long and valued history of its policing services being supplied by the RCMP.”
“I would like to take the time to thank the RCMP for the fantastic work that they do,” Ganley said. “I know not all political parties are supportive of continuing with the RCMP, but I think they have worked incredibly hard on this and that we are seeing the results of that.”
She said the policies suggested in the document, as well as in the provincial United Conservative Party’s rural crime report, would take too long to implement and involved issues outside the province’s jurisdiction.
“There was a deep concern about this now,” she said. “So I think it was important for us to act quickly.”
“Some of my colleagues from the UCP would suggest that we yell at the federal government about their jurisdiction. The Conservative party has obviously suggested that we replace the RCMP. This (NDP) plan was developed with the RCMP … I think that they’re actually doing an excellent job of working with communities.”
MP Shannon Stubbs, a member of the task force, said in a statement that the report “reflects comments and questions” they heard from rural Canadians and is not Conservative party policy.
“The RCMP deliver world-class policing, whether it is on national matters or contract policing to provinces and territories,” she said.