Statistics Canada has since 1962 had a reporting system called the uniform crime reporting survey, similar to the system in the U.S. or in the U.K. A lot of effort goes in to making that uniform, and there's no doubt, if you look over the last 10 years, that police-recorded crime has been going down in this country. The severity index was introduced only in 1998, so automatically that has been going down.
On October 20th, 2011. See this statement in context.