COLD LAKE - Mayor Craig Copeland has been reappointed to the Crime Severity Index (CSI) Committee.
The committee includes the 20 highest-ranked communities with populations over 10,000 residents, working together to address the challenges posed by the current CSI ranking system.
According to information from the City of Cold Lake, “The goal is to begin working on a public request to the federal government to change the way Statistics Canada reports communities' Crime Severity Index rankings.”
Information in the May 28 council meeting agenda further explained the impact the current system has on smaller communities.
“Due to lower populations, smaller communities, like ours and yours, are significantly impacted by one single 'major' crime and it skews a community's publicly announced ranking in a very real and consequential way,” according to the information presented. “The Committee is formed to lobby the federal government on making changes to the CSI.”
Copeland affirmed his commitment to the committee, stating, “some of the Saskatchewan mayors are really leading the charge on this one, doing a great job, but the idea is that they’re trying to set up a meeting in Calgary, so we’ll see if something happens. But I’m quite comfortable staying on this one. This might only be a committee for a short period of time, but it’s been interesting on this one.”
Council approved a motion to reappoint Copeland to the committee.
