A motion related to rural crime put forward by Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs has passed the House of Commons unanimously May 30.
Motion 167 will direct the parliamentary standing committee on public safety to assess rural crime rates and trends and to provide recommendations on how to combat it.
Stubbs said she was jubilant as the motion made it through the House.
"I would like to thank the thousands of Canadians, including groups like Farmers Against Rural Crime, as well as the Alberta Rural Crime Watch Association, who supported the motion," she said. "I also know they reached out to Liberal MPs across the country to support it as well."
She said over the past month, the motion received more than 100 endorsements from seven provinces.
"It includes municipal associations, individual municipalities, provincial MLAs, as well as residents who have been impacted by rural crime," Stubbs continued. "So I was very glad to see the Liberals provide their majority in support of passing this motion."
Stubbs said it is a rare thing for an opposition MP to get such a substantive motion passed with unanimous consent.
"The process included a friendly amendment from the NDP during the process," she said. "It added a focus on strengthening the judicial system and resources, and increasing support for victims of crime in rural Canada, as well as increasing the tactical and operational ability of Indigenous police forces. I felt that those were also important issues to highlight, and so I accepted that amendment to my original motion."
The next step now is for the standing committee to conduct their study.
"They must now begin to conduct this comprehensive analysis on the increases in rural crime, the factors involved, an analysis on RCMP and policing resources, including staff shortages," Stubbs said. "They will also look at partnerships between federal and provincial police forces. It'll be the standing committee's job within the next six months to convene meetings, bring witnesses, and to be able to provide the foundation and the information and then give what I am hoping will be concrete recommendations for the government to take action and start combating rural crime."
Stubbs added she believes the motion is an important first step toward making concrete recommendations to improve rural crime prevention and reduce emerging crime rates.
