Everyone in Alberta has the right to be safe : IRFAN SABIR

ALBERTA NDP RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE PUBLIC SAFETY PLAN, COMMITS TO HIRING 150 SUPPORT WORKERS AND 150 POLICE OFFICERS AS PART OF INTEGRATED TEAMS

CALGARY (Times Bureau) if elected, an Alberta NDP government will restore municipal police funding and invest in integrated teams to make urban transit safe while addressing poverty, homelessness, mental health, and addictions.

The Alberta NDP plan will improve public safety and better address the root causes of social disorder by ensuring properly-funded police forces are working together as a team with community and social service providers to make a meaningful impact, specifically in the downtown cores of Calgary and Edmonton.

This announcement follows previous Alberta NDP commitments that ensure greater access to affordable housing, adequate emergency shelter space, and spaces with addiction and mental health services.

“Everyone in Alberta has the right to be safe,” said Alberta NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir. “This requires a commitment to diversity and to strong community engagement and leadership. Today’s social problems are getting more complex so our solutions must be more comprehensive.

“We will work with municipalities to hire 150 police officers and we will pair these officers with 150 social workers, mental health workers, addictions counsellors, and community outreach workers as a part of integrated teams. Three hundred frontline partners, working together with a focus on safety and support.”

In 2019, the UCP government made deep cuts to social support programs and municipal funding that was directed towards policing. That included confiscating municipal fine revenue by increasing the provincial take from 26.7 per cent to 40 per cent, resulting in a $32 million loss in municipal police budgets.

Calgary lost police funding and so did Edmonton. This decision, combined with other UCP cuts, has led to rising rates of poverty, houselessness, addictions and crime in urban centres, large and small.

“If an Alberta NDP government is elected, we will reverse these cuts. We will invest in better policing and stronger communities,” said Sabir.

The $32 million in lost revenue will cover the bulk of the estimated cost of hiring police officers and support workers, which carries an estimated total cost of $40 million.