A round table meeting was hosted by the Liberal Party's critic for public safety and emergency preparednesslast week at North Battleford City Hall.
Discussion focused on community public safety and crime rates in North Battleford.
Wayne Easter, Member of Parliament for Malpeque, P.E.I., had two questions for community representatives.
"How can we work cohesively to lower crime rates in the region and what can the federal government do to lower the economic burden of policing at the municipal level?"
He said he and other Liberal critics are holding meetings and round tables across Canada "to get feedback on policy issues that concern people, in terms of work in Parliament and partly in terms of establishing our own policy format as we move forward under Justin Trudeau's leadership."
Attending the meeting were the mayor, several council members and city administrators, representatives from various agencies in the community and the RCMP.
Among rousing affirmations of North Battleford's self-starter crime reduction program and community policing enhancements, were comments on finding root causes and the need for prevention.
It was also commonly agreed crime is a regional, not local, issue. That North Battleford taxpayers have to bear the burden of a regional crime issue did not sit well with most speakers, including Easter himself.
Across Canada, he said, municipalities are all saying the same thing when it comes to the economics of policing. There has to be a better way to share the cost.
North Battleford's "dubious reputation" of first on the crime severity index for both non-violent and violent crime for communities of 10,000 has seen the city approaching provincial and federal levels of government for assistance in making the city a "centre of responsibility."
That assistance was not forthcoming, so the City set up its own crime reduction program, hiring a crime reduction co-ordinator for six months.
"At the end of our six months' program," said City Manager Jim Puffalt, "we're pretty sure we will have data to prove what we're doing is effective. We'll be paving the way communities can operate in North America."
Mayor Ian Hamilton said the City originally approached crime reduction as a policing issue, going to the province to acquire assistance in funding policing positions specific to North Battleford.
"It's evolved past that now," he said. "Now we are representing to the provincial and federal government a changed program."
Hamilton said, "We as a community understood the need to have a holistic approach to crime."
The impact of addictions has certainly been identified, he said.
"The reality is that we are the hub of about eight First Nations within about a 40 -mile radius, that's so much opportunity there for us, but at the same time these are communities that are impoverished, education levels are not very high," he said.
Easter remarked one of the most difficult things in politics is saying there's a certain problem, "because you're going to get nailed to the wall for having admitted it. It's the cruel blood sport that is politics ... but you can't fix the problem unless you admit you've got one.
Puffalt said, "We have to treat community safety as a service, yet it doesn't seem quite fair we are required to deal with the issue ourselves."
He added, "It's not a municipal responsibility to do social services, but if there is an issue we have to step forward. We need other levels of government to recognize it and help with the funding of it."
It's not just about policing, he said, but getting to what's causing the problem.
"You can throw a million police officers at something but it's still not dealing with what's causing it in the first place," said Puffalt.
Inspector John Sutherland and S/Sgt. Howard Nodwell of the Battlefords RCMP as well as Superintendent Darcy Davidson of Saskatoon heard compliments on how closely the RCMP has been working with the City in its crime reduction efforts.
Sutherland said, knowing there is little likelihood of getting more members, the community is in a good position to make up that shortfall by finding alternative ways to address policing. There are many proven strategies from other countries to draw on, he added.
Among comments from other attendees, much was made of the community safety officers who have been put in place to free the RCMP up for more serious crimes, and Nodwell said the biggest advantage has been turning the corner on acceptance of shared responsibility.
Director of protection services for the City, Albert Headrick, said the safety office program may be one piece of the puzzle, but funding has to be in place.
"If you are really serious about putting the program forward ... funding is the bottom line."
Councillor Ryan Bater agreed. He told Easter that if he was looking for ideas from the federal side, the answer was money.
"Our RCMP force is two thirds of what it should be."
He said the government should be adjusting the funding formula for municipalities and making it more flexible as a way to provided the services required.
He also said the root causes of crime have to be addressed.
"We've gone over and above," said Bater. "None of these are municipal responsibility. These are responsibilities of higher levels of government."
Councillors Cathy Richardson and Greg Lightfoot both addressed the need for early intervention.
Herb Sutton, three days into his new position as crime prevention co-ordinator, recently retired as director of education for Light of Christ Catholic School Division. He made two points.
First, he said, the three levels of government need to think upstream as much as possible and address underlying problems causing crime.
"It's not rocket science, it's common sense. These are issues that have been around for a long time. They are at the root of what's causing criminal activity and until we address some of those things we're going to continue to be working downstream."
His second comment was about collaboration amongst the many groups and agencies involved in crime reduction in the community. As easy as it may sound, it is actually difficult to bring different groups with different cultures and different ways of doing things together, he said. Any federal or provincial support would be welcomed, said Sutton.
