Is Alberta to blame for Vancouver’s spike in crime?
Posted October 25, 2016 7:17 pm.
Last Updated October 26, 2016 6:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Suggestions have been made from Vancouver Police that Alberta could be responsible for a spike in crime in this region. The comments were made during a news conference yesterday when investigators announced the arrest of three men, two of them Albertans.
“I think a lot of it is anecdotal, I don’t have specific numbers to provide you,” said Sergeant Brian Montague. “I think a lot of it has to do with the Alberta economy is so poor right now and that the BC economy is thriving. In the past we used to see a lot of people move from British Columbia to Alberta and now we’re seeing the opposite flow because the economy is poor and the jobs aren’t there, we’re seeing a lot more people in general move from Alberta to British Columbia and as a result we’re likely going to run into individuals who have recently moved here who are committing crimes as well.”
Montague says it’s not just Alberta, they’re seeing individuals coming from all over the country and some have outstanding warrants in those provinces.
“I think it is just anecdotal and it’s something that our front-line officers have seen and we’ve seen it for many, many years when we’re dealing with individuals that have criminal histories from other provinces and have moved to BC to avoid dealing with those criminal histories. In many cases they have outstanding warrants where the police in British Columbia can’t touch them but if they remain in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Ontario they can be arrested and face trial. That’s nothing new, I’ve been a police officer since 1994 and we’ve been dealing with out of province radius warrants for decades.”
The words aren’t new to Calgarians, in fact, former Mayor Ralph Klein suggested an influx of Canadians from the east were responsible for Calgary’s woes back in the 80s.
The statement, however, didn’t appear to surprise Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin. “I know Chief [Adam] Palmer well and he’s a very thoughtful man so if they’re seeing migration in the province there probably is some relationship with the economy in this province moving towards where there’s a heightened economy both through legitimate business and criminality follows the economy so if that’s happening and he’s seeing that it’s probably accurate but I haven’t seen any of the data but I trust he has all the information,” says Chaffin.
“I’ll have a chance to talk to him when I see him next but I mean I would expect there is migration of people, the more lively economy both in business and criminality, I wouldn’t be surprised but I haven’t seen the data on it.”
