SARM unimpressed with national study on rural crime

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) was eager to sift through a national study on rural crime when it was released earlier this week.

President Ray Orb was expecting a binder of information from the standing committee on public safety and national security after Conservative Alberta MP Shannon Stubbs spurred the study a year ago.

What would normally be a weekend worth of reading for Orb was quickly accomplished in less than 10 minutes because the study was only three pages in length.

“It didn’t take long,” he said of the report that fell woefully short of his expectations. “I’ve been reading the report and kept looking for more, but unfortunately there wasn’t much to it.

“That’s a real disappointment to SARM; that’s not something that has been studied more than what is evident in that report.”

The document recognized the growing concern of rural crime across the country, noting the long response time from police and condemning vigilante citizens who want to solve matters themselves.

As far as any recommendations, the report suggests provinces fund police agencies more as policing falls withing provincial jurisdiction.

Orb has been repeating his cries for more funding for years. He was hoping the federal government would do more than try and shift responsibility.

“It seems like the federal government is pushing more responsibility on to the provinces. A province like Saskatchewan only has so much funding to fund RCMP and we’ve been pushing the federal government for a number of years to have more RCMP members in this province,” he said. “This report is not going to help us.”

The report does believe in crime reduction measures that encompass four components: “effective crime fighting requires adequate police resources, partnerships with the community, robust victim support and a justice system that inspires public confidence.”

Stubbs doesn’t see anything changing with a fall election on the horizon.

“The problem at this point is I think it is going to take a change in government,” the Alberta MP said when she joined Gormley on Friday. “Seeing the Liberals respond this way on this report … in the combination of the response of this report and what they’re doing in their criminal justice legislation is the exact opposite of protecting the security and safety of all Canadians, especially rural Canadians.”

The report also included a dissenting opinion from the Conservatives that suggests getting tough on repeat offenders, calling for tighter, electronic monitoring of offenders in the community and self-defense laws that are abundantly clear to Canadians.

“That was the whole point of this motion – instructing the committee to do this work – to really do a deep dive on all these factors,” Stubbs said, adding she expected to see some concrete action.

Orb isn’t convinced this report will affect any change.

“The federal government needs to step up more,” he said. “I’m hoping, with pressure from other organizations across the country, that the federal government realizes it’s a problematic issue and that you need to push a little harder to make sure they do a problematic study.”

Orb said about 170 communities across Saskatchewan are involved with the newly-formed RCMP Crime Watch Network that increases engagement from rural communities and gets information directly to the people signed up.

Either way, Orb thinks its a matter of time before another study is being released.

“This is too brief and I think they really missed the point,” he said. “I think they need to go back and do another study.”