Stockwell Day says unreported crimes are rising

OTTAWA – Canada needs to spend more money building prisons because of violent criminals and a rise in unreported crimes, Treasury Board President Stockwell Day said Tuesday.

"We’re very concerned . . . about the increase in the amount of unreported crimes that surveys clearly show are happening," Day said at a news conference. "People simply aren’t reporting the same way they used to."

Day was not immediately able to provide a source for his arguments about a rise in unreported crimes, but a government spokeswoman said the office of Justice Minister Rob Nicholson would be able to provide further details.

He made the comments as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet and caucus returned to Parliament Hill for a series of meetings to review the government’s agenda and economic policies.

Day said the government was committed to wind down stimulus spending programs to eliminate the deficit, but added multi-billion investments expected for new prisons would be necessary in the context of unreported crimes.

"Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can’t take a liberal view to crime (or) suggest that it’s barely happening at all," said Day. "We still have situations, too many situations of criminal activity that are alarming to our citizens and we intend to continue to deal with that."

He added the government also needs to introduce tougher and mandatory sentencing for offenders who commit violent crimes such as arson or home invasion with aggravated assault.

"Previously, there were too many cases where those were addressed with what’s called conditional arrest or conditional sentencing," he said. "That means the criminals in that case get sent home. They don’t have to go to jail. That is not a deterrent."

Canada also has many aging prison facilities that are decades old and no longer suitable, he added.

"You can have more efficiencies by putting people in more efficient and newer institutions more capable of handling the type of severe criminals that we have," Day said. "All of that adds up to safer streets and safer communities. What the final (investment) figure will be on that has yet to be determined but we have to address these particular areas."

Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland said Day’s comments were "ridiculous."

"I think they (Conservatives) are so desperate to turn the channel with crime issues that they are willing to just make up facts and hope that people believe that in fact there is some basis in reality for this fantasy that they are writing," said Holland.

But he said the more fundamental issue was that the real numbers are compiled by Statistics Canada, an agency that has come under attack following the government’s decision to scrap the mandatory nature of the long-form census.

"We get our information and we trust facts that come from Statistics Canada," Holland said. "Clearly this is a government that doesn’t have any respect for facts, let alone for Statistics Canada, and I think they’ve shown it in how they are addressing crime."

Meanwhile, Day said the government would maintain the mandatory nature of Canada’s short-form census, despite its concerns that Canadians were previously facing fines and jail time for not completing the longer version of the questionnaire.

He explained the information from the short-form version of the census is necessary, while there are other sources available to get the details which emerge from the long-form census.

Day said he’s received some complaints from constituents over the summer about the government’s decision to scrap the mandatory nature of the long-form census.

Day said some were concerned about whether important statistics would still be available, but overall, he said most Canadians were concerned about other issues.