BONNYVILLE - The issue of rural crime and people living in fear of it made its way to the MD of Bonnyville council for discussion last week.
“I don’t know where to go,” was the message delivered to MD council members by a ratepayer frustrated with ongoing rural crime and fed up with a Justice system he said is failing the very people it is supposed to protect.
Dustin Morton said his truck, which is his livelihood, was stolen about a month ago. It is not the first time it has happened. The experience has he and his wife on edge, with every little noise sending him outside to check that everything is ok
“Everybody wants something done, but nobody knows how to get it done,” Morton said, asking if the MD reaching out to its ratepayers and starting a petition was a step that could be undertaken to bring attention to the issue.
Reeve Barry Kalinski acknowledged Morton’s concerns around crime, saying criminal activity is getting “ridiculous.”
CAO Al Hoggan suggested a good starting point would be for the MD to arrange for council to meet with Alberta’s Justice Minister Mickey Amery. He said multiple municipalities have met with the Justice minister to shine a light on crime in their communities.
Hoggan also advised council to consider including residents who have been impacted by criminal activity, so they can tell their stories directly to the minister, thus making it more of a grassroots approach.
“Then hopefully they’ll do something because so far the province has done very little to nothing towards solving rural and small-town crime,” Hoggan said.
“A real disaster is going to happen because people have had enough,” Kalinski said.
“It’s going to get to the vigilante stage and that’s what I’m trying to prevent,” Morton said in response, adding the theft over $5,000 charge that thieves face in court, if they get to court, does not reflect the value of property being taken nowadays. The combined value of the two trucks he has had stolen “is over a quarter million” Morton said, noting that also does not begin to address the mental health impacts people are facing as victims of crime.
Hoggan noted the ball is in the federal court as to how crime is addressed and the issue has become a political one driven by the federal government of the day. He advised there shouldn’t be any false hope this is going to change any time soon.
“This is as much as political problem as much as a crime reduction problem, this is federal legislation. . . Whether or not the federal government has any inclination to change the direction that they’ve currently been going in, it will be a question that the voters will be asked to deal with within the next couple of years.”
Council agreed unanimously to arrange a meeting with the Justice minister to discuss concerns with rural crime in the community and invite some members of the community to attend and participate. Council also agreed to send letters of concern to federal Members of Parliament Shannon Stubbs and Laila Goodridge.