Alberta Police Based Victim Service Association sounds alarm on Bill 16

“The fund was established some 30 years ago, and various governments over those years have provided responsible stewardship for those monies and the collection of them and the distribution of them, and have do so quite successfully…[leading to] 74-million dollars in surplus,” Rudd told LNN.

The surplus is meant to help the 70-plus victim service programs in Alberta.

However, Rudd noted that if the Amendment Act passes, the surplus funds would instead be used for other public safety initiatives, such as hiring police officers and prosecutors.

Earlier this year, the victims of crime surcharge was increased from 15 to 20 percent.

“Therefore, that’s going to grow that fund. If they’re [government] concerned about the size of the fund, as was expressed in the Auditor General’s report in 2016…then perhaps there should have been a reduction in the surcharge and not an increase. Nevertheless, there we are, that’s been an increase to that fund through that surcharge, and in addition, rural communities and municipal districts and counties in the province of Alberta are now being billed for policing costs,” Rudd said.

“It’s quite proper that that money generated [from municipal policing costs] should go to these public safety initiatives, such as hiring other police and prosecutors, rather than taking from the crime victims and using that money for that purpose, which is already supported by a tax base.”

Rudd said at the end of the day, their focus lies on the needs of victims of crime, using someone traveling across the province as an example.

“Your car is wiped out by a drunk driver, where do you turn? The logistics of that are nightmarish. There’s not a square foot in the province of Alberta where there’s not a victim service worker available to come out and support the police – the police have their investigation to do…the police do that piece of the work and in the meantime, the victim service worker supports that family, those people, that individual to work them through that particular dilemma that they’re involved in,” he said.

Rudd noted that the Association has had a “good relationship” with the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General’s office over the years, however, there have been recent struggles.

“In terms of this new government and trying to express our concerns to the Minister (Doug Schweitzer) in particular, we haven’t had a whole lot of success with that; requests for meetings have been turned down. We did get a half-hour telephone conference with him, but it wasn’t with the Association, it was with some of our Association members [who] were able to get access [through various contacts] and that’s all we’ve had. There’s been no on-going discussion, no opportunity to ask questions, no opportunity to participate in consultations when it comes to uses of the funds.”

Rudd said the APBVSA has distributed information by way of a letter and a pamphlet to MLAs across the province to share their concerns.

“Alberta has a lot to be proud of when setting up this program for Victim Services and funding it. It’s unique in Canada; it’s the envy of Canada,” Rudd said.

“When you want to talk about return on investment – for the money that goes into it and the output of work that gets carried on, and yet there’s still money left over…should that not be something that we celebrate? Should that not be something we protect?”

He added that even in these uncertain financial times, it’s important to not forget victims of crime and use the funds to help those impacted by tragedy.

by Justin Goulet

Alberta Police Based Victim Service Association sounds alarm on Bill 16

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