Good morning.
I'd like to thank Rosemarie for inviting me to this.
I understood it would be issues facing women. An issue that's facing me in my area is that rural crime has skyrocketed lately, so I want to talk about that.
I am not a public speaker, so this is really unusual for me to try this.
My husband and I are beef ranchers. We have property in lots of different areas around our farm. I have to travel up to 20 kilometres to get to my fields to check my cows and to do farm work.
The nearest RCMP detachment is a good 20 minutes drive from here. If I run into trespassers or whatever on my property, I have to deal with it for quite a while before I know any help will arrive. Our area doesn't have street signs or road signs in most places. You have to tell the police or any help to come by directions. It's like when I moved here from the city and I thought, I can't believe anyone can find anything, yet the police are required to try to navigate to places where they've never been before and to come when we have issues.
Last fall, and actually in the past year, our neighbourhood was targeted by thieves like we've never seen before. It's been outrageous. They come and they steal your vehicle.
We've had to put up security cameras and gates, and they'll smash right through the gates. We put up a bar across our shop door so they couldn't smash that in, and then they just broke a window and climbed through the window. When we speak to the RCMP, they tell us that their hands are really tied because when they arrest the perpetrators, they go to the justice system, the justice system gives them a slap on the wrist and they're out again to come and do their shenanigans all over again. The perpetrators seem to know that the consequences aren't very great. It would be really nice to hear that we could have some sort of backup from the police when these things happen.
Basically, I'm not following my notes that great, but it's easy to hear a story and think, it's just stuff that they're taking, but property theft is more than that. It hits you in the heart. It changes the way you think about neighbours coming by or vehicles that you meet on the road. People think, that's why you have insurance, or it's just stuff and you can replace it. But anyone who's ever tried to collect insurance knows that your premiums go up. It costs you money besides the feeling that you've been invaded. It feels like a life and death situation when someone breaks into your place. You feel like your family is threatened, and you don't feel safe anymore.
My hope is that there will be some solutions coming towards higher penalties for the thieves and feeling like the police can do their jobs better.
I appreciate that you've taken time to listen to me this morning.