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Prime Minister Harper speaks at PACIFIC ECONOMIC FORUM

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

By Anna Grimes
Venue: The Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina

“The immediate focus of our government will be passage of the Tackling Violent Crime Act,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a sold-out Vancouver Board of Trade audience. Photo: Dave Roels

In a PACIFIC ECONOMIC FORUM™ speech to The Vancouver Board of Trade today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed British Columbia’s growing economic and political importance within Canada and noted that the federal government’s core priorities are in line with B.C.’s priorities.

It was Harper’s first address to The Board of Trade since he became Prime Minister in January 2006. The PACIFIC ECONOMIC FORUM was presented by TELUS and the Aquilini Investment Group, and supported by Alcan, the Port of Vancouver and Spectra Energy Transmission. It was also his first public address since Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced sweeping tax cuts in his fall economic update on October 30, 2007.

“No national government has ever had such deep roots in this province,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the five ministers, six parliamentary secretaries and 18 MPs representing B.C. in Ottawa. “And it is reflected not only in the composition of our Cabinet, caucus and party – but in the agenda our Government is pursuing to build a better Canada, and the increasing influence British Columbia brings to that process.”

That agenda includes five long-term priorities, which Harper outlined:
• To steer the economy towards continuing prosperity;
• To protect the environment and, by extension, the health of Canadians;
• To strengthen Canada’s sovereignty and place in the world;
• To make streets and communities safe again;
• And to modernize Canada’s federation and democratic institutions.

Now that Harper’s recent Throne Speech and the long-term tax reduction plan were passed, “the immediate focus of our government will be passage of the Tackling Violent Crime Act,” he said.

At the post-luncheon press conference, Harper met several grade nine students who were participating in Career Day with their parents at the event. Photo: T.Hadley

The measures outlined in the Act include keeping the country’s most dangerous, violent offenders behind bars; better safeguarding children by raising the age of protection from 14 to 16; giving police more tools to deal with drunk and drug-impaired driving; and cracking down on gun crime by tightening bail rules and providing mandatory prison sentences.

“The recent murders in Surrey and Shaughnessy only underscore why all the national parties campaigned in favour of tougher laws against violent crime and why the public is fed up with the soft-on-crime approach.”

In his introductory comments, Vancouver Board of Trade chair Henry Lee commended Harper and his government for their crime bill, calling it “long overdue and hopefully just the beginning of the rebalancing that is necessary to put victims and public safety first.”

Lee also pressed the Prime Minister for more accurate measures of crime. Currently, Statistics Canada uses an outdated and misleading definition based on crimes reported to police rather than criminal victimization surveys.

“The problem is, fewer and fewer criminal acts are being reported,” Lee said, referring to the most recent survey of victims which reported that the number of actual crimes reported to police had dropped to one-third. “In fact, 66 per cent of violent crimes, including 88 per cent of sexual assaults, are never reported at all and as a result, Canadians are not being given accurate and timely information on crime.”

On the other hand, the more accurate Criminal Victimization Surveys, for which The Board has strongly advocated for the past several years, cover 90 per cent of all crimes. The latest report shows more than a quarter of Canadians over 15 years of age are victims of crime each year and the number that are victims of violent crime has increased to 30 per cent of the total. These Surveys, however, are only reported every five years while police data are released every year, giving misleading figures on the actual crime rates in our country.

Prime Minister Harper made two announcements during his speech to The Board of Trade. He revealed that the Government of Canada had just signed a bilateral air transport agreement with Singapore that will boost Vancouver’s role as Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway, and he announced that the Government will reintroduce legislation to increase the number of seats in the House of Commons for fast-growing provinces like B.C.

Read the complete text of the Prime Minister’s speech 
Read the complete text of Henry Lee’s introductory comments

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