Thank you very much for the question.
I think nationally there has been some encouraging news in recent years on crime statistics, but certainly the pressure on municipalities has actually been growing. In the last 20 to 25 years, the percentage of the country's policing costs that are paid by municipalities has grown from below 50% to close to 60%, and municipal police forces have assumed a growing portion of the new policing responsibilities in the new environment. For instance, in areas like cyber crime, border security, and harbour security, there are real growing pressures on local police forces.
Our members were very pleased to see the federal government take a role in funding front-line policing with the money that was dedicated to the police officer recruitment fund. That was a five-year fund worth, I believe, $400 million. Our members feel very strongly that where that needs to head is to a sustained partnership and sustained funding role between municipalities and the federal government on the issue of policing. As you can imagine, having money to help recruit police officers is wonderful, but of course then you need money to keep them on staff and keep them policing the streets.
So we've spoken at length to the federal government about the need to have a national policing strategy to bring the three orders of government together and make the most of our recourses, so that we're getting the best bang for our crime-fighting buck. A first step would be to maintain the investment the federal government is making in this area and put it on a sustained basis, so we know that it's not just a four- or five-year investment but it's on ongoing commitment by the federal government to support municipal police forces.