Reversing the recent rise in rural crime across Alberta will require a concerted effort from both the provincial and federal governments, says United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.
In Mountain View County on March 1 to meet with educators and business owners, Kenney said rural communities need help without delay.
"These are real people suffering three or four hundred per cent increase in property crime and now people are taking the law into their own hands," Kenney told the Gazette. "This is not a good situation.
"Most of these property crimes in rural Alberta are being committed by a relatively small number of serious repeat offenders. They need to go behind bars and stay behind bars."
The rise in rural crime can be attributed to a number of factors, he said.
"Part of it is that Justin Trudeau's government has brought back the revolving door," he said. "Stephen Harper (former Conservative prime minister) had brought in more than 40 bills that had really stopped the revolving door of catch and release on repeat criminals.
"The bottom line is the provincial government seems to be in denial. We brought a hundred crime victims up to the legislature in November. They sat in the gallery. We asked for an emergency debate and all of that was denied."
He called on the Trudeau and Notley governments to take action to toughen the response to rural crime. "We need the federal government to bring back those tough on crime laws," he said. "We need the federal government to fill the backlog in judicial appointments to the federal court in Alberta.
"We need the province to hire additional provincial court judges and Crown prosecutors. We need to get the RCMP to be much more responsive to the staffing requests of municipalities."
The UCP is currently gathering public input on rural crime with the intention of presenting a report to the legislature, he said. "Our MLAs have been consulting with crime victims, municipalities, police, prosecutors and others," he said. "We've put together a task force that will be assembling its recommendations shortly."
During a town hall meeting in Eagle Hill on Feb. 20, RCMP superintendent Garrett Woolsey said rural crime continues to plague the province.
"We're seeing increasing crime rates across the board," said Woolsey.
"These are real people suffering three or four hundred per cent increase in property crime and now people are taking the law into their own hands."
