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Crime concerns brought forward by Town of St. Paul mayor

Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller requests help from province to set up Police and Crisis Team
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Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller and Premier Jason Kenney stand on the UFO landing pad in St. Paul on Aug. 5. Clare Gauvreau photo.

ST. PAUL - The Town of St. Paul's key focus amid a visit from Premier Jason Kenney last week was crime, addictions and mental health. During the visit, Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller requested help from the province to address the issues.

With limited time to speak to the Premier, Miller focused on addressing the local issues being seen around crime, and asked for assistance from Alberta Health Services to help in the formation of a Police and Crisis Team (PACT). This assistance would be in the form of mental health and addictions specialist that would work with the RCMP in dealing with these issues.

"As a designated mental health centre, we have patients come to St. Paul from all over the region, either through physician referral or brought here by the RCMP," reads a media release sent out by the Town of St. Paul on Aug. 6, the day following the meeting with the Premier. "Officers often spend hours sitting in emergency waiting to have a doctor see the patient. Currently these sorts of duties take up half of our member’s time. A PACT team would free our members up to deal with crime on the street."

The mayor also addressed the lack of wrap around services for patients once they are released from hospital. Patients from neighbouring communities often have no way to get home, she explained.

The following day, in a face-to-face interview with Lakeland This Week, Kenney spoke speifically to what the province has been doing to address crime, and admitted he was unaware of the addiction issues being seen in the region.

“It’s one key thing I’ve learned, I didn’t realize how bad it was up here. We’ll be working with Laila (Goodridge), with MLA David Hanson, and others in the northeast to see what we can do to add detox treatment and recovery programming in this part of Alberta," said Kenney.

He said the province has been putting money toward a mental health and addictions strategy, creating 4,000 new addiction treatment spaces in Alberta. The province is taking a more holistic approach and is looking to offer 12- to 18-month programs, rather than the shorter programs previously offered.

Offering longer recovery programs gives people the time to “unwind the damage that has happened," said Kenney.

“It’s clear that a key aspect of the rural crime wave has been drug addiction. Increasingly in the northeast I’m hearing about methamphetamine addictions . . . it drives people to do crazy and violent things," said the Premier.

By 10 a.m. on Aug. 6, Miller had already been contacted by the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions as a follow up from the meeting with the Premier the night before, according to the Town of St. Paul.

Other ways the province has been focusing on addressing crime include passing a law that requires registration for the sale of scrap metal. A lot of criminals were stealing copper wire, or “anything they could get their hands on,” said Kenney.

The province also passed legislation that strengthens tools against human trafficking, along with passing legislation making it illegal for somebody convicted of serious sex offences from changing their names, "so that pedophiles can’t hide in the community.”  

Reorganization of law enforcement agencies has also been a focus, with the province looking at more efficient use of agencies that already exist.  

The Premier also said the revised municipal police funding framework will benefit rural areas, increasing the number of police in rural Alberta.

 


Janice Huser

About the Author: Janice Huser

Janice Huser has been with the St. Paul Journal since 2006. She is a graduate of the SAIT print media journalism program, is originally from St. Paul and has a passion for photography.
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