Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague from Lakeland for introducing this private member's motion, Motion No. 167, calling on the committee for public safety and national security to conduct an assessment on the pressing issue of rural crime in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2015, Canada's crime index rose for the first time in 12 years, with the highest increase in western Canada. In 2015, the gain in the national non-violent crime severity index was partly the result of an increase in property crime.
In 2016, the index increased for a second year in a row, with approximately 27,700 more police-reported incidents. In 2016, the CSI increased 2% over 2015, nationally.
The rise in rural crime is an issue across Canada, and today I want to focus my comments on the challenges facing my home province of Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan is a vast province, with a size of 651,900 square kilometres and a population of 1,100,000 people. Our communities are spread out and our police officers are spread thin. Since 2011, the province has had a 4.2% increase in reported property crime violations.
To ensure my presentation in support of the need for rural crime Motion No. 167 was accurate and timely, I invited the member for Lakeland to participate in a round table discussion in my riding of Yorkton—Melville. I had heard a great deal about this when travelling around my riding, but I knew I was about to be broadly informed on this issue from every perspective on the basis of the overwhelming response to the invitation to participate.
Representatives from 10 villages, from rural municipalities, and from towns shared the real current levels of property crime, property theft, and vehicle theft taking place in our riding.
Farm families that have lived for many years with minimal threats and a sense of safety and security have become more and more anxious in the last few years about the safety of their children playing in the yard in broad daylight, or being woken in the dead of night by an intruder in the yard or in their home or business. The stress of constantly losing equipment and supplies cost them to such an extent that many are seriously considering that carrying on the rural lifestyle they toil through and love is becoming more of an impossibility.
Beyond personal safety, our rural communities are concerned about business retention, as many businesses have been victims of multiple crimes. Loss of businesses and employment in communities will only further escalate rural crime issues. Concerns over rural security are increasing as they are seeing repeat offences becoming more frequent and brazen.
Rural businesses and families are not reporting crimes because they have given up hope on anything being done. This causes the problem to compound. Crime is going unreported, so statistics on rural crime are unreliable. This is alarming because the number of RCMP officers who are deployed to an area is based on crime statistics.
Statistics are needed that accurately reflect the severity of this issue. We need to look into what resources the RCMP has in order to protect our communities effectively and to ensure it has the manpower it needs so officers can respond to calls faster, investigate these crimes, and not have to work such dangerously long and stressful hours to make up for shortages.
Citizens in my riding are concerned about the safety of our RCMP men and women, and the safety of the communities in which they work. Nationally, more than one in 10 RCMP positions are currently vacant. Of those vacancies, 6.6% are not filled, 3.9% are reported to be on long-term sick leave, and 1.6% are reported to be maternity/ paternity leave.
In Saskatchewan, the RCMP has approximately 925 members working out of 87 rural detachments under community policing agreements. Another 250 officers are based at larger municipal RCMP detachments, and 33 officers are involved in community tripartite policing arrangements with Saskatchewan first nations.
At our Yorkton—Melville round table, the RCMP was well represented by F Division Commanding Officer Curtis Zablocki; Staff Sergeant Devin Pugh, RCMP South District; and Sergeant Travis Adams of the RCMP Yorkton Rural Detachment. It was such an honour to have them participate, as they listened intently and contributed significantly to the discussion.
Rural crime in Canada has dominated Facebook forums, online chat rooms, and local media across the country. I was fortunate to have the creator of Farmers Against Rural Crime participate in our rural crime round tables as well. The closed Facebook group site has garnered over 17,000 members from across Canada in very short order. The site is well monitored by its creator Nick, a young farmer in Saskatchewan with a young family, who sees the issue of rural crime as very serious and wants to provide a place for those impacted to tell their stories and to have sensible, honest conversations about how to work with government, RCMP, communities, and individuals to better combat and eradicate rural crime in Canada. Nick shared a stack of emails with me, which was only a portion of those from the site, describing current rural crimes that have caused undue hardship physically, financially, and emotionally in the lives of rural Canadians and their families. I look forward to Nick and Farmers Against Rural Crime being called as witnesses when this motion is passed and the committee work begins.
Motion No. 167 is a multi-faceted tool that would serve the federal government well to respond to rural citizens, communities, and RCMP and community constables, whose experiences and recommendations are critical to ending this rural crime crisis.
At this point, I believe it is important to mention that as I travel extensively throughout my riding, there is a deep appreciation for our police force and the first responders who serve the citizens of rural Canada. Those who populate our cities and leave the city to travel, visit family and friends, or vacation in the pristine natural environment of Canada’s rural countryside need to comprehend the need and lobby for government investment in rural infrastructure. They, too, need to highly value our rural police force and first-line responders, such as STARS, which is expensive but was so crucial in dealing with the horrific crash that claimed so many lives in the tragedy of the Humboldt Broncos.
Again, there is a deep concern for our RCMP officers as they simply do not have the capacity and resources necessary to find criminals and bring them to justice in rural Canada. They are understaffed and overworked. There is significant concern for their safety, their mental and physical welfare, as well as their families.
This shortage of policing support is well known to the criminal element, as well, and is playing a role in increased violence attached to rural crime. The rise in rural crime has coincided with the escalating opiate crisis in Canada. Since the first major bust, in April 2013, police across Canada have shut down 20 fentanyl labs, mostly operated by organized crime groups. The biggest raids were in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
Multiple first nations communities have declared a state of emergency in response to the uptick in opioid overdoses, during which crime rates began to soar. The member of Parliament for Lakeland and I heard from multiple participants that limited front-line law enforcement resources and long response times have made rural communities and properties ideal targets for theft and vandalism, gang activity, and organized crime operations and expansion. First nation reserves also face reduced safety and protection and increased crime due to reduced policing services in rural and indigenous communities.
I heard an encouraging report of co-operation between two neighbouring communities, one a rural town and the other a first nation reserve, which want to see healing circles used when children as young as 11 years old are committing crimes being led by 13- and 14-year-olds, who know there are no real consequences for them. They would have to stand before their elders to answer for their actions, as well as hear from the business or property owners they have robbed to learn about the cascading harm and negative impact on victims of rural crime.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, SARM, also contributed greatly to the round table discussion on rural crime and is very engaged in assisting our police forces.
Motion No. 167 is precisely what our communities need, and I believe that the government needs to engage in combatting rural crime. There needs to be a study that looks at the real numbers to get accurate statistics so we can base our recommendations on the reality that our communities are up against.
I am pleased to hear that this is a non-partisan issue. We can all agree that the escalation needs to end. We need to bring our communities together. We need to find comprehensive solutions, from determining exactly how bad this problem is to determining what the RCMP needs, and also the critical underlying causes of rural crime.
That is exactly what Motion No. 167 would do, and that is why I stand in support of it today on behalf of my rural riding and all rural Canadians.