Mr. Speaker, I rise today to expose the Conservative crime plan as an attempt to import a failed American style justice system into Canada. What has not worked in the U.S. is not going to work in Canada either.
The reality is that the Conservative scheme is simplistic and costly because the government refuses to use the most effective crime prevention tools. Using those tools means fewer victims.
When the Conservatives say “tough on crime”, they mean funneling taxpayer dollars solely into incarceration, not prevention. The truth is that for every dollar invested in crime prevention, six dollars are saved in policing and incarceration costs and there are far fewer victims.
Instead of just being tough on crime, we need to be smart on crime. The NDP wants to see tough penalties for violent offenders, but even more important, we want to invest to ensure that crimes are never committed in the first place.
We need to cut crime at the roots. The solutions are to fight poverty and addiction, invest in education, support our youth, build stronger communities and strengthen our police forces. That is being smart on crime.