Tories pledge $25M to keep kids occupied

Funding for community groups

By: Bruce Owen Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Friday, Sep. 9, 2011

Progressive Conservative Party Leader Hugh McFadyen softened his get-tough-on-crime platform Thursday in announcing a government under his leadership would create a $20-million fund to pump more money into community facilities to keep kids out of trouble.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2011 (5358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

McFadyen said the Manitoba Community Investment Fund would be an increase of $5 million per year over current NDP funding and ultimately provide $25 million in new funding for community facilities around the province over a five-year period.

“We know that the weak approach of the NDP is not working,” he said outside the Greendell Park Community Centre in south Winnipeg. “We know that providing alternatives to young people will ultimately pay off.”

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Progressive Conservative Party Leader Hugh McFadyen — TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Progressive Conservative Party Leader Hugh McFadyen

Earlier in the week, McFadyen said his government would provide more resources for police to crack down on gangs, more Crown attorneys to prosecute fraud and gun crimes and expand the use of electronic monitoring to include repeat sex offenders.

He said the new fund would be easier for community groups to access.

“What we’re looking to do is roll existing funds together in order to reduce the amount of red tape and duplication involved in making funding applications,” said McFadyen.

He added while the increase in funding may be modest compared to the need, it’s the most the Tories can promise at a time when the province’s finances are in deficit.

Earlier in the campaign, Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard promised $4.6 million for community centre programming and hiring more recreational directors.

Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh, a former provincial justice minister, said Thursday the overall Tory plan on crime appears to be a minor tinkering of the NDP’s strategy.

Over the past year, the province and city announced almost 40 community clubs will see upgrades under the joint $10-million Building Communities Initiative, above what other funding the provincial government provides through other programs like Neighbourhoods Alive.

Mackintosh said if the PCs were truly concerned about crime, they’d speak out against Ottawa’s proposed changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, changes that will make it harder to keep young criminals in pretrial custody and raising youths to adult court for serious offences.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Targeting seats

IF there was any doubt of Hugh McFadyen’s strategy, it was made clear in the first official week of his election campaign.

The Progressive Conservative leader hasn’t strayed too far away from south and west Winnipeg and the handful of seats his party needs to steal from the NDP in order to form the next government.

He’s done that by bringing his tough-on-crime platform to Assiniboia, St. Norbert and Riel during the day and by hosting three evening crime forums in Riel, Assiniboia and Fort Garry-Riverview. All of these ridings are places where the fear of crime is worse than actual crime — unlike ridings in the inner city, which the Tories aren’t targeting.

At the same time, the crime forums have given McFadyen a chance to highlight his candidates, people like Ian Rabb in Fort Garry-Riverview, Susan Auch in Assiniboia, Rochelle Squires in Riel, Karen Velthuys in St. Norbert and Gord Steeves in Seine River.

He’s also spent considerable time campaigning with each door-to-door.

McFadyen said despite this apparent concentration on Winnipeg, his overall campaign strategy is to focus on issues, not points on a map.

“We want to focus on real problems that are facing the city and the province, and those problems are not limited to one particular neighbourhood or part of the city,” he said, adding he hopes to touch base in every part of the city and province over the next three weeks.

He also said his crime platform will address root-cause issues like poverty, not just gangs, illegal guns and electronic monitoring of repeat sex offenders.