Home Newsroom 2004 Speeches (archive) McLellan: 2004-04-06

National crime prevention funding announcement

Speaking notes for
The Honourable Anne McLellan

Edmonton, Alberta
April 6, 2004

As delivered

Thank you very much, Pat (Fizell) and good morning everyone. Indeed it is a great pleasure to be back here at Inglewood School. I want to say a special good morning to the students who are with us here today because, as I think we will see in just a minute, so much of what we are doing in our crime prevention strategy is about not only communities, but it is also about the young people who live in those communities. It is about having safe and caring places for them.

Elder Eva Bareti, thank you very much. River Creek drummers, thank you very much. Brent Rathgeber, it is always a pleasure to be here with you. And we have some other guests this morning. First of all, we are joined by Mayor Moe Hamdon from Drayton Valley. Thank you very much for being here, Mayor. And Acting Chief Bradshaw of the Edmonton Police Service –thank you, Chief. We are also joined this morning by representatives from the Calgary City Police and the RCMP. Thanks to all of you for being here today.

As some of you are probably aware, crime prevention actually got off the ground as a program within the Government of Canada when I was Minister of Justice. And when I became Minister of Health, I lost the program. It was taken away from me. But, I was always very committed to our involvement in community-based crime prevention. I do believe it is so important that we spend more time looking at what I call the front-end of our justice system, which is how we work in communities, especially with youth, to prevent crime in the first place.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t need traditional policing, law enforcement and laws. Of course, we do. Nobody would suggest otherwise. But, we really do need to spend more time thinking about how we can work in communities to keep people out of trouble. That is especially true for our young people.

That is why I am so pleased today to be able to announce almost $6 million, here in the Province of Alberta, for 80 community-based crime prevention projects. "Community-based" is the key word here. It is about the fact that local communities all over this province have identified needs within their community – pressures, challenges, and concerns. They have also identified their resources, which is an important thing. For example, what are the strengths, the capacities within the community to deal with the concerns?

We get many applications from communities all over this province. In fact, there is a partnership between the federal and provincial governments, and a Management Committee that works together and makes the choices. The Solicitor General’s department in the Province of Alberta works with us and shares the same commitment to crime prevention in communities all over Alberta. I want to acknowledge and thank my colleague, Heather Forsyth, who couldn’t be here this morning.

Our two governments work together with local communities. It is the local communities who identify their needs and put their projects on the table. We work together to choose those where we think the impact will be the greatest or where the need is the greatest. What we are announcing today is $6 million for 80 projects for which communities have come together to identify their needs, their resources, and put in place a plan for the way forward.

I also want to acknowledge the importance of our law enforcement agencies and crime prevention. Obviously our police, at all levels, are there to enforce the laws as they exist. But, the police in this country and in this province have also been very supportive of proactive policing, or involvement in the communities. That speaks again to the importance of prevention. I think most people who are active in the police community would agree that it is better to be working in the community, working with young people, working with people who are potentially in trouble and vulnerable, to prevent them from getting into trouble – before harm is done to themselves or others. So, I do want to acknowledge the very strong support for community-based crime prevention from our policing organizations here in the Province of Alberta.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is really a great pleasure. In a way, I feel that I’m back in the crime prevention business because I was very, very proud of the Government of Canada’s involvement in crime prevention and the development of this National Crime Prevention Strategy.

And therefore, I am pleased in my new capacity as Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to be able to support communities in this province, and all over this country, that are committed to making their communities safer places for everyone to live.

And as I say, I will end where I began. At the end of the day, so much of this is about the children. It is about working in our community to make sure our young people are safe and secure, that they get a good start in life – in their families, in their schools, and in their communities. I have always believed that if we can reach out and work with those young people and get them off to a good start, we won’t have the problems that we sometimes tragically see in our communities, as kids become teenagers and then young adults.

So for me, this is a very special day. I want to thank and acknowledge all the communities who are represented here. We are going to hear from some of the special projects that are receiving funding – and they cut through a wide variety of needs within local communities. I really am very pleased to see so many Aboriginal communities who have identified needs and have put together projects, which will help them in their communities deal with some of the social issues that exist there.

Thank you everyone again for being here. I would encourage everyone to go around the room at the end of the ceremony and look at all the posters that speak to us about the good things that are happening, not only here in Edmonton, but also across our province. And again, I want to thank the province for its partnership, and the communities where the hard work actually takes place. Communities are where people live, and it is you who know your needs and identify your strengths. Just a big thank you and congratulations to everyone.