Drug addictions, downturn in the economy, and career criminals are all factors which have contributed to the apparent growing issue of rural crime in our province, and our member of parliament wants to find out how this is affecting residents in his riding.

With the goal being to send a report to both the provincial and federal governments, MP for Red Deer-Lacombe Blaine Calkins, along with other members of his Alberta Conservative Caucus have formed a Rural Crime Taskforce, and are traveling around Alberta next week to hear feedback from constituents.

Calkins will be stopping at a few places in Central Alberta to gather feedback on the issue of rural crime, something he says is up over 200% in some communities in his riding.

“That’s property crime and violent crime, when you combine those two, and that’s in the last couple of years and that’s a significant increase. So we’re going to meet with everybody that we can, we are going to meet with every stakeholder involved including having public meetings so people can come and tell us their stories, but more importantly we’re interested in finding out what kind of solutions will work, and what the people want us as elected officials to do.”

He says they plan on working with all levels of government to address this issue, which he says is causing people to be nervous to leave their property out of fear of being broken into.

“Of course working constructively with my municipal counterparts as well, county councillors, reeves, small town mayors and so on. Everybody has got a vested interest in this and we’re looking for partnerships wherever we can find them to be as constructive as we can going forward in dealing with this very serious issue.”

Calkins will be at the Alix Community Hall on Monday, the Lincoln Hall on Tuesday, and the Liberty Hall on Wednesday, with a 6:30 start time for all dates.