Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Dr. Richard Starke is expressing his frustration after a motion for a rural crime emergency debate was shut down. The speaker of the legislature decided that the argument brought forward by Starke and other members, while important, did not meet emergency criteria and that a debate would not take place.
Starke says that rural crime is one of the biggest concerns in our area.
“I hear it every day, every time I come home, every event I attend there are people who are relating to me what they’ve experienced in terms of having items stolen, having vehicles stolen and that sort of thing. Increasingly people are not feeling safe in their own homes and when it reaches that point, I think we have an emergency on our hands.”
He adds not having the debate is a “lost opportunity.”
“I would have certainly introduced some of what I heard at the town hall in Mannville with regards to enhanced mental health and rehabilitation services to break the cycle of crime. I would have also introduced what has been done in the province of Saskatchewan. They had a rural task force, they redeployed 238 officers from other areas of law enforcement.”
Starke says that an emergency debate being shut down doesn’t leave many methods of getting the debate back on the agenda.