Madam Speaker, I will be as brief in my response as my colleague was in his question, because I know he is speaking next and I am always anxious to hear what he has to say.
Let me give an illustration as to where the funding might be placed. Community group after community group has come to see me in my office with ideas on how to deal with the issues of youth crime. These are grassroots communities. These are people who come together and say “We know there is a bit of a problem and we want to deal with it”. They have put forward all kinds of plans, some of which I have given to the minister of justice, dealing with youth centres.
One of the best examples that is tragically falling short of funding in my community is having a police officer in the junior high school; community based policing where young people have a role model who is an officer of the law, who can help them work out problems, who can relate to them on a day to day basis.
This program has operated in a junior high in my community, Sherwood Park Education Centre, and it has been an excellent program. Unfortunately, as money dries up there are real questions as to whether that can continue.
Those would be some of the programs which I think would help at the community level to deter crime.