OLDS - 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.
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 Tremblay 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 streamlined.
“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."
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."
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.
“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.
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.
Over the long term, the party would seek to address the root causes of crime, he said.
“We should focus on social inclusion and the promotion of public health, food security, education and public housing," said Garbanewski.
Gary Tremblay, 49, is seeking office for the first time. He said if elected he would work with the province to fight rural crime.
“It’s such a big area so trying to control rural crime is tough," said Tremblay. "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 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," said Tremblay.
There are several candidate forums planned for the riding over the next couple of weeks, including in Innisfail at the legion on Oct. 1, beginning at 7 p.m.
