Mr. Speaker, I will respond to the questions of the member for Vancouver Kingsway regarding the police officers recruitment fund. It sounds as if he is not aware of the good work that this government is doing with police. I hope the NDP is now no longer a member of the hug-a-thug club.
One of the government's most important duties is the protection of its citizens against threats to their safety and security. This government takes this duty very seriously and one of our priorities since coming to office has been to strengthen public safety and security, to protect Canadians in their homes and communities and to ensure that Canada remains the best place in the world to raise a family.
To achieve this goal, we have made significant investments in policing, starting in 2006 when we became government, with $645 million over five years to increase the RCMP's federal policing capacity, including funding for an additional 1,000 positions to focus on drugs, organized crime and other law enforcement priorities.
As part of our safer community strategy, this government has also delivered on the key platform commitment of making funding available to the provinces and territories to support the recruitment of 2,500 new front line police officers. Budget 2008 set aside $400 million allocated on a per capita basis and over five years for the creation of the police officers recruitment fund to encourage provinces and territories to recruit additional front line police officers.
Establishing the first-ever police officers recruitment fund is a considerable federal investment that marks an important step forward in a way that respects provincial and territorial jurisdiction for policing, while ensuring maximum flexibility.
Consistent with their responsibility for policing, it is up to the provinces and territories to allocate funding as they see fit in their municipal and provincial police services. Provinces and territories are able to use the fund in a way that is best suited to address their local public safety priorities and policing needs.
All provinces and territories publicly confirmed their participation in the police officers recruitment fund and the fund was established on March 31, 2008. All provinces and territories have received their allocations and have the flexibility to draw down all of these funds at any time over the five years.
A number of provinces have publicly announced how they intend to use this funding: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. For example, in February 2009 British Columbia announced it will be using its share of the fund toward hiring 168 new police officers within two years to focus on gang violence.
Given the diverse public safety needs across Canada, the public officers recruitment fund will go a considerable way toward supporting and complementing the costs of provincial police recruitment initiatives. This is an example of governments working together to respond to the priorities of Canadians.
All governments acknowledge the importance of reporting to Canadians about how public funds are used. Under this initiative, provincial and territorial governments have been encouraged to report directly to their residents on the expenditures and the outcomes anticipated.