Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen is looking for input from constituents about their experiences in combating rural crime as part of a 12-member task force he assembled in December.
Specifically, he is asking how residents are affected by rural crime and if they have any suggestions towards improving prevention, policing and prosecution.
“Feedback has been good so far,” he said.
“I mostly meet with municipal councillors, but I’m looking for more public input. We’re really looking for some solutions, particularly how the federal government can change things, so we’re doing roundtables all across Alberta.”
Noting that the issue of rural crime comes up at just about every town hall he attends, Viersen said he and the rest of the task force, consisting exclusively of Conservative MPs from Alberta, have had several meetings with RCMP mapping incidents in the province and the results were eye opening. As reported in the Jan. 9 Westlock News, RCMP received 12 rural break-in complaints Dec. 24 to Jan. 2.
“We’ve got some pretty interesting graphs about where the crime is up significantly,” he said.
“You can really see how the changes in the economy have affected things. In one case there was a 400 per cent increase in property crimes between 2013 and 2015.
“In my riding, Westlock County is probably the hot spot.”
Viersen would not elaborate on specific comments he’s heard from constituents, instead saying that once the survey is completed they’ll report back to Parliament with the findings. He estimated the report would be released sometime in February.
“At that time I’m hoping to talk more about what we’re hearing and the trends that we’re seeing,” he said.
“We’re not making any recommendations yet, I just want to hear from people across the riding at this point.”
One problem is consistently brought up, however.
“A lot of times we know who the problem people are, but it’s a catch-and-release system,” he said. “In some way we need to get that sorted out.”
While he said he’s had a lot of feedback already, Viersen wants more and is asking anyone with “unique ideas” on how to combat rural crime to drop him a line through his e-mail at [email protected] or mail him at for free: MP Arnold Viersen, Box 4458, Barrhead, AB, T7N 1A3.
