Mr. Speaker, the comments of the hon. member are very interesting. All our citizens want to be able to walk the streets safely. In certain pockets of our country that is not the case and that is very sad. We need to ensure that the police have the ability to make the streets safer and that we incorporate and involve the necessary programs so we can deal with the underlying reasons of why some of those people engage in behaviours that violate our laws.
Has the member looked at the statistics on criminal activity from the Department of Justice and whether it has gone up or down over the last five years? The homicide rates now are 2 per 100,000. Six years ago they were 1.8 per 2,000. The homicide rates have been quite static. For the most serious criminal activity, the rates have declined for quite some time. That situation exists in most of western society. It certainly exists within our own country.
I would encourage the member to take a look those. He would see that not only have incidences of serious offences, such as sexual offences and assault causing bodily harm, declined on an ongoing basis over the last six to eight years, but less serious and non-violent offences have declined as well. In fact, the bulk of the offences have declined.
On balance, we would all support initiatives to ensure that our society is safer, that those who are inveterate criminals pay time commensurate with the criminal activity in which they have engaged. However, we must also employ preventative measures that ensure some people do not fall afoul of the law and engage in criminal activity.
I have mentioned before that we must deal with the psychiatric issues such as the underlying issues of fetal alcohol syndrome and prevention of those as well as the head start program, all of which will put less dependence and demand on our justice system.