Candidates seeking office in the Red Deer-Mountain View constituency have outlined some of their respective plans to fight rural crime.
The Red Deer-Mountain View constituency includes Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs, Sundre, Innisfail, Penhold, Cremona, Mountain View County and parts of Red Deer County.
With 338 seats up for grabs, Canadians go to the polls on Oct. 21.
As of press time Monday, the declared candidates in the riding are incumbent Earl Dreeshen from the Conservative Party of Canada, Conner Borle from the Green Party of Canada, Paul Mitchell from the People’s Party of Canada, Logan Garbanewski from the NDP, and Gary Trembley from the Liberal Party of Canada.
Earl Dreeshen says if re-elected he hopes to address rural crime in several ways, including providing more resources to the courts and to other stakeholders so the justice system can be steamlined.
“We’ve been hearing about this issue for years but it has really ramped up with the slowdown in the Alberta economy,” said Dreeshen. “We need to make sure we are hiring the judges to make sure they can deal with the caseloads they have.
“We want to make sure that we look at whatever unique situations there might be in order to speed up the processes in the courts. That’s one of the key issues, the bottlenecks that are there in the system. There are ways in which that streamlining can be done. Certainly we are looking forward to discussions with those involved with the court system and the police forces to try and come up with solutions.”
Work needs to be done to ensure people know their rights when it comes to protecting themselves and their properties, he said.
“I think a lot of people are unsure of just how things work and I think the awareness part is something that is critical,” he said. “If there is some clarity that is needed then we should consider that in the legislative realm.”
Paul Mitchell says if elected he plans to introduce private member's bills he says will give owners more powers to protect their homes and property.
For example, his Property Protection Act would make crimes committed in rural areas or rural small towns an “aggravating factor against the person who entered, took, damaged or destroyed property,” he said.
“With crime going up and it’s becoming quite a serious issue,” said Mitchell. “Criminals are becoming bolder and bolder and we need to make sure that our citizens who are put into the very unfortunate situation of having to deal with a serious event (are protected). It’s time for criminals to be afraid, not our citizens.
“If something happens the criminal has brought it onto themselves. We need to stand up for our citizens and allow them to protect their property rights. If there is some sort of force used, the citizen is the one who has to be defended. They can’t be second-guessing themselves.”
Mitchell’s Rural Protection Act would allow Canadians to “defend themselves and their families using their legally owned firearms when their safety and lives are on the line,” he said.
Conner Borle says addressing rural crime will require a multi-level approach.
“One of the biggest things with rural crime is that we need to stop the apathy that is coming from the federal government,” said Borle. “The federal government just hasn’t treated it as an issue and hasn’t really responded to it properly.”
If elected he would push for more funding and autonomy for rural municipalities to help them address crime concerns, he said.
“Right now there is a big disconnect. Municipalities get a very small amount of the money and the money that is coming in isn’t very consistent and long term,” he said.
If we can streamline the funding coming to municipalities, they are the ones that are on the front line and they understand the issues they are facing with rural crime and how to address them.”
He said he would also work to determine the root causes of rural crime.
“Why is it happening? Who are the people that are perpetrating it? How can we introduce preventative measures before somebody might get to the level where they are needing to go and commit crime and why are they targeting rural areas?”
Logan Garbanewski says if elected he would undertake both short-term and long-term efforts aimed at reducing rural crime.
In the short term, he said the NDP would work to improve cellphone coverage in rural areas so residents can more easily contact police to report crimes.
“We really want to improve coverage because in some areas, if you can’t get cell coverage how can you call if you have an emergency?” said Garbanewski.
Over the long term, the party would seek to address the root causes of crime, he said.
“We believe it is very important to address the causes of crime,” said. “We should focus on social inclusion and the promotion of public health, food security, education and public housing. We especially want to increase youth engagement because that will reduce the risk of crime.
“Of course we plan to support the RCMP to ensure that they retain trained members and hopefully decrease the number of members who are leaving so we have a larger force of members.”
Gary Trembley, 49, is seeking office for the first time. He said if elected he would work with the province to fight rural crime.
“Rural crime is one of the main concerns in Red Deer-Mountain View,” said Trembley. “It’s such a big area so trying to control rural crime is tough. We’ve got to work with the province and we do need the RCMP in the rural areas. We need coordination with the province.
He also said he would work to provide more resources to the justice system.
“We don’t have enough judges or courtrooms. We are letting people go in this province just because we don’t have time to hear their cases. They (accused persons) are walking free and that’s not a good situation here.”
There are several candidate forums planned for the riding over the next couple of weeks, including in Innisfail on Oct. 1, Sundre on Oct. 2, and in Olds on Oct. 9.
