Tackling crime in our communities
by Peter Van Loan, MP York-Simcoe

I'm sure we would all agree that safe streets and low crime rates are essential elements to a healthy community. When an area is known to be safe, when it is home to a friendly and vibrant community, people feel confident about going there-whether to do business or to raise their families.

Canada's New Government has made a firm commitment to make Canada's streets and communities safer. We have made tackling crime one of our top five priorities. And it is a goal that the residents of York-Simcoe and all Canadians want to see achieved.

Canadians want their Government to get tough on criminals and send a clear message that violence will not be tolerated in our communities.

This new Conservative Government is tackling crime. We have proposed changes to the Criminal Code to provide tougher sentences for violent and repeat offenders, particularly those involved in weapons-related crimes. It will help prevent crime by putting more police on the street and improving the security of our borders.

This spring, we introduced five new bills that will make our communities safer.

We proposed reforms to our laws on conditional sentencing, so people who commit serious and violent crime will serve their time behind bars-not at home or in the community.

We introduced our mandatory minimum penalties bill to send a clear message that gun crimes will not be tolerated.

Our Government has moved to strengthen our National DNA Data Bank legislation to help our police identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent. The data bank has already proven itself to be a powerful crime-solving tool for police and prosecutors.

We have also introduced new legislation to increase the maximum penalties for offences that involve street racing, a reckless and dangerous act that kills all too often.

And finally, we introduced legislative proposals that would raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 years, to ensure our children are better protected from sexual predators.

These bills still need to get support of the legislative process to become law. It may not be very easy. Most of the local Liberal MPs voted against our bill to get tough on gun crime. In a minority parliament, we need support from other parties to get our changes adopted.

That's why we are introducing changes in a series of bills - with some more to come. Our commitment is to make the changes we need to tackle crime.

To back up these commitments, we provided funding in the 2006 Budget to begin recruiting more RCMP personnel and federal prosecutors, to expand the RCMP Training Academy, to further strengthen the National DNA Data Bank and to prevent youth crime.

It is equally important that we prevent criminal behaviour before it has a chance to take root. To this end, the Government will work with the provinces and territories to help communities like Innisfil provide hope and opportunity for our youth, and end the cycle of violence that can lead to broken communities and broken lives

In the election campaign, we said we'd tackle crime. This spring, we followed through. We are getting things done for families and taxpayers. And this fall, we will continue to move forward confidently to help make York-Simcoe a safer, more secure place to live and grow. Now that's change for the better!