Mr. Speaker, I remind those who have been following this debate what we are speaking to in order to draw the total context for the comments I will make.
We are talking about the Standing Order with respect to the committee's report on justice and human rights and a motion that came out of committee with respect to the contribution that ethnocultural communities can make to the prevention of crime and so on. It has been emphasized through this debate that crime is not relegated to the ethnocultural community. Crime is of concern to all communities across the country. The issue before us deals with finding the best ways to respond to crime.
There have been broad discussions on other days with respect to the criminal justice system. I will not speak on that side because the other side of the debate with respect to the prevention of crime deals with programs and targeted strategies. Nine times out of ten they are programs to support our educational systems, our boards of education, our policing agencies, our community-based organizations across the country.
I am sure the House appreciates the comments made by the parliamentary secretary. This broader issue of crime prevention is the subject of a round table, consisting of people from all walks of life and all cultural organizations. It crosses every particular part of our communities needs. Strategies and suggestions will be coming out of that round table.
I will emphasize from my perspective as a member for a constituency that is very needy. I do not know whether we can conclude that home ownership is an indicator of whether there is more crime or less crime, but it probably is one indicator with respect to poverty. I think we can all conclude that poverty is an important root cause of criminal activity, especially in young people. While my colleague has indicated that 85% of the people in his riding own their own homes, in my community of York South—Weston 31% of people own their homes. If this is an indicator of the distribution of wealth, we can see that both parts of the spectrum represented.
While that may be an indicator of poverty, in my particular area crime rates are below average, which means something must be happening to make people take some carriage in ownership of the issues that lead to criminal activity. We have very strong citizen involvement in community based organizations, and that is absolutely critical to the prevention side of dealing with the symptoms and the reality of crime in our communities.
I want to take this opportunity to outline three areas. I think common sense and practice have convinced us that these are the areas in which we can support police, community based organizations and educational institutions, all those who either in their jobs or as volunteers people want to be active in their communities. The areas are seasonal employment, apprenticeship-type training and sport. It seems an understatement to suggest that whatever strategy comes forward, those are fundamental areas in which we should invest.
I will speak to those, but I want to show, because of our corporate memory lapses and our fundamental loss in wisdom, how we probably do things inadvertently that undermine our capacity to respond.
I will talk about the apprenticeship training programs that had been worked out, and there was continuity from the last government to this government. However, I believe there was an oversight in the last budget and key programs were not supported. In the area of apprenticeship training in the trades, there is a crying need across the country for young people to be trained in the trades. Where there is youth at risk, they should be involved in pre-apprenticeship training.
In my area of York South—Weston in the greater Toronto area, and I know there are parallels in other provinces, the trade union councils and union members work together with the boards of education to develop pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship training programs. To assist them, there was the apprenticeship infrastructure training program. This program allowed boards of education to invest in tools, supplies and equipment, which were in keeping with the changing technology in the trades, and to train young people, either in a pre-apprenticeship program or in an apprenticeship program, to engage and become part of the mainstream of life in our community.
Believe it or not, as obvious as it should be but as a surprise probably to members of the government, the apprenticeship trades infrastructure program was suspended. There no longer are those funds or investments going into partnership programs, which were serving very well both youth at risk and young people who wanted to engage in trades across the country.
When we talk about developing partnerships, we know how hard and long it takes to do that. Those programs in apprenticeship training were not carried by government. In this case they were carried with incentives provided by government, picked up by union members and labour within the trades and complemented by the space made available in the schools, particularly in my riding of York South—Weston.
It was a program that had the capacity to become very effective, and was very effective, to ensure that youth at risk did not fall through the cracks of the system and become those who would be exploited by gang activity or by those who would exploit them for nefarious purposes. I use that as one illustration.
The second is seasonal employment. All of us for years have been using the student and summer employment program. MPs were working with community based organizations, ensuring the mentoring was taking place in solidly managed volunteer organizations, which were deploying young people very effectively in working with youth. In my area the For Youth initiative was one example of that. It also worked with seniors and shut-ins who were virtually abandoned in their apartments and homes. That program was cut back. I use it as another illustration that inadvertently, possibly innocently, we lose one of the basic ingredients for mobilizing communities and dealing with young people who could be subject to exploitation by those who are involved in gang and criminal activities.
The final thing is sport. My friend from Prince Albert has introduced his bill, which was unanimously taken by the House.
I have a letter from members of my community, and I am sure this is typical across the country, who are volunteers working with young athletes. They point out that even when they get accreditation through sports organizations, they have to pay a fee through Athletics Canada when they want to participate in national and international competition. In many cases, those volunteer organizations have to try to raise that money so these young people can compete, either interprovincially or on behalf of their country
I think conventional wisdom tells us that there are three ways to meet the objectives of this motion to deal in an effective way with criminal activity: to invest in communities, to invest in volunteerism and to bring our communities together.
I hope all members of the House are conscious of how through these examples we can do better.