Depending on whom you ask, the provincial government is either doing a good job in addressing the rise in rural crime or is falling far short of doing enough.
RCMP officials say there has been a marked rise in rural crime, including property thefts and break and enters, over the past year.
A number of public open houses have been held in the district in recent months seeking solutions to the crime wave.
In a release issued last week, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre United Conservative Party (UCP) MLA Jason Nixon said the Notley government is failing to address the rise in rural crime.
“For more than two years, rural crime rates have been on the rise in Alberta, leaving thousands of victims across the province feeling vulnerable and unsafe in their own homes,” said Nixon.
“And for more than two years, United Conservative MLAs have been sounding the alarm in the Alberta legislature, in an effort to convince the NDP government to take action.
“To suggest that because United Conservatives disagree with this government’s fiscal approach generally, and its response to the rural crime crisis specifically, we don’t care about victims is not only ridiculous, it is objectively false. United Conservative MLAs have been attending town halls, meeting with victims, and advocating in the legislature since this crisis began. The same cannot be said for the NDP.
On the other side, the NDP says the UCP is hindering, rather than helping, government efforts to fight rural crime.
“Why did they vote against the new resources necessary to fight rural crime?” said Colin Piquette, NDP MLA for Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater. “We know that the problem has grown, and so it needs a growing response.
“I’ve heard from Albertans across the province that we need these officers and resources now. I don’t know why the UCP keeps putting politics ahead of the practical steps we’re taking to fight crime in Alberta. They should have stood up for rural Alberta instead of voting against their own constituents. It is beyond disappointing.”
MLA Nixon says the official Opposition, not the government, is leading the fight against rural crime.
“Instead of pointing the finger at the Opposition, whose job it is to hold the government accountable and propose credible alternatives, the NDP should be trying to explain why it took more than two years for it to take escalating crime in rural communities seriously, and why they’ve allocated less than one per cent if its total budget to keeping rural Albertans safe,” said Nixon.
