Meeting with Minister of Justice Doug Schweitzer
The meeting started with us having the opportunity to share what has been happening in our areas with regards to rural crime along with what we have been doing about it. It was nice having two full hours to discuss these issues so that we could make him aware of what was happening in our area.
- Foothills County's Enhanced Policing Program
- Rural crime issues
- Call delays for those reporting crimes
- The importance of streamlining the process for reporting crimes
- Of the announced $10 million from the previous government for increased crime initiatives and prosecutors, none came to our area.
- Possibility of expanding jurisdiction of Sheriffs
- Rural Crime Watch programs
- and others
The Minister stressed his commitment to fulfill their campaign promises with regards to Rural crime as outlined in the report, "A Safer Alberta" - UCP Strategy to Tackle the Rural Crime Crisis from July 2018 (click here to download the report).
In the evening, Minister Schweitzer and MLA Rosin hosted a Town Hall event in Springbank and invited me to attend.
At the event, I was able to provide some valuable feedback on what was working in the Foothills along with specifics of what we have learned directly from members of the local RCMP detachments. It was a spirited evening with a number of passionate people in attendance.
I was glad I was able to provide some insight and respond to questions about a very real issue in Alberta.
