With the help of the Yorkton Business Improvement District (YBID) and local citizens who care, the City of Yorkton has been, and will hopefully continue to see, improvements in the way of cleanliness and beautification but there's a deeper problem at hand and one that is becoming a growing concern.
Statistics Canada recently released the 2010 Crime Severity Index which looks at crime across the country - both the severity and the volume - and surprisingly or not, Yorkton makes the list of the top 10 worst cities in Canada.
It almost seems unfathomable. Yorkton has a small town feel, most of us know our neighbors, say hi to the people we pass on the street, and granted, our population isn't as high as the nine other cities making the top ten list, but it indicates we have issues, issues that need attention as we continue to grow and evolve.
The statistics, which cover 238 Canadian cities with population of 10,000 or more say Yorkton is number seven on the list overall, number six when it comes to non-violent crime and 15 when we talk violent crime. That's a scary thought, by this measure Yorkton rates worse than Saskatoon, and even Winnipeg. While crime appears to be on the decline nationwide - it's in fact at it's lowest level since 1973 - we in Yorkton are on the rise. The city's crime rate now sits at 205 compared to the national average of 88.9.
Why is that? What are the factors that are causing this? While there has been much speculation and many fingers pointed we can't blame just one single thing.
Perhaps our own police sergeant - James Morton - said it best when he said, we can add more police officers but that won't be enough - "We need to deter, but we also need to educate. That's where the parents, the family values come in. People need to respect each other a lot more."
And it's true, a lot of it comes down to just that.
Do you know what your teen is up to tonight?
