I am pleased to add my voice to those of the members for Gatineau and Alfred-Pellan, who both gave very eloquent speeches.
We support the bill. However, as the member for Gatineau said so well, it has some flaws. Unfortunately, in committee, the Conservatives rejected all the proposed amendments to this bill instead of improving it.
No doubt everyone in this House understands the importance of cracking down on drunk driving. I do not think there is a single member in this House who has not had a family member, neighbour, or friend involved in these tragedies that take place far too often on Canadian highways. What we see often is that they were entirely preventable.
Someone getting behind the wheel of a car and deciding to drive while having consumed alcohol is someone who is a risk to people throughout the community. Far too often, it results in serious injury and even death.
As members know, my riding of Burnaby—New Westminster is part of the north Fraser area, and we are connected to the south Fraser area by a number of bridges, including the Pattullo Bridge. I know a number of constituents who have had family members who have died or been severely injured because of drunk driving on the Pattullo Bridge. This is something that is repeated right across the country.
There is no doubt that having legislation is helpful, but what the legislation before us lacks is somewhat along the lines of what my colleague, the member for Gatineau, just expressed so eloquently a few minutes ago. What the Conservative government has done in terms of crime prevention, cutbacks to the RCMP, and refusing to adequately fund the judicial system has caused enormous prejudice to actually putting in place a smart policy on crime.
I think the most egregious is the government's slashing of crime prevention programs. For every dollar we invest in crime prevention programs, we save six dollars in policing costs, judicial costs, and penal costs. The investment for the Canadian taxpayers is extraordinarily large if one dollar invested in crime prevention saves money in a whole variety of other spheres. More importantly, it means that there are no victims, because the crime is not committed in the first place.
The current Conservative government has completely slashed and burned crime prevention funding right across the country. Crime prevention offices that were set up to prevent crime, to stop crimes like drunk driving from being committed, and to educate the population so that what we end up with is a population that understands the ramifications of these kinds of offences and does not commit them were slashed and burned by a government that, in some bizarre way, seems to want to triumph on fighting crime when it actually undermines all of the effective programs that would actually reduce crime rates.
This is the problem. We have seen it in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and right across the country. We can ask members of Parliament from any part of the country, and we will get the same reaction.
The Conservative government has been utterly irresponsible when it comes to taking a smart approach to crime and reducing crime at its source by putting in place education programs on drunk driving, and even more importantly, by having an overall crime prevention strategy. The elimination of all of those programs has been distinctly unhelpful. As we are seeing now in various parts of the country, it has led to a rise in the crime rate.
The member for Surrey North and the member for Newton—North Delta have been raising consistently in this House the number of shootings taking place in Surrey, British Columbia.
As members know, what has happened in Surrey occurred primarily because the current Conservative government did not keep its commitment to put more front-line police officers in place across the country. It failed to keep that commitment. Also, as members well know, what we have is a government that has also actually clawed back from the RCMP. Our front-line police officers now have fewer resources than they used to have to combat drunk driving and other offences, again because the current government seems to want to put money into other things. Maybe it is the Senate; maybe it is special conferences, such as over the last one or two days, that cost a billion dollars. The Conservatives are eager to put money there.
However, when it comes to crime prevention programs, front-line police officers, or adequately funding the RCMP, what we have seen is a woeful lack of responsibility from these Conservatives.
I think that is the reason that in poll after poll, 70% of Canadians say they are finished with these Conservatives. They want nothing more to do with them. They are eagerly awaiting October 19, when they can toss the Conservatives out of office. The Conservatives have proven to be irresponsible at the one policy they said they would be good at.
Yes, there are some bills that may help, such as the bill we are discussing today, but when they cut and slash crime prevention, when they do not keep their commitments around front-line police officers, when they claw back from the RCMP, they are undermining the institutional foundations for actually putting a smart-on-crime strategy into place. The unfortunate victims of those incredibly short-sighted policies and incredibly mean-spirited, foolish, irresponsible approaches to being smart on crime are Canadian families.
When we look at a bill like this, we say, yes, the bill may move us forward. There are weaknesses in the bill that should have been addressed, but this government does not actually accept amendments from the opposition. More importantly, it is not the bill that counts; it is the overall actions. Every single time when the Conservatives had an ability to make the right decision over the last four years, they have chosen to make the wrong decision. Slashing crime prevention was a wrong decision. Refusing to keep a commitment to put front-line police officers into communities like Surrey, British Columbia, where we have seen a marked increase in the number of shootings, was a foolish, wrong decision. Clawing back from the RCMP was a foolish, wrong decision. We have simply seen too many foolish, wrong decisions
We will support the bill today. There is no doubt. However, Canadians who feel who strongly, as I do, that we need to crack down on drunk driving—including at the source, including putting in place smart strategies to educate the public on crime prevention strategies—will have to wait until after October 19 of this year, when we will have a government in place that will do the smart thing, the right thing, in battling crime and reducing the number of victims in this country.