There are things to which Prince George should aspire. For example, being the Heart of the Province. We are the one of the major economic drivers in B.C. as well as being almost in the center of the province. And we have people with great warmth and heart at all levels and in many organizations in town.
We also have some of the most giving people in the country living in Prince George, judging by the results for the Run for a Cure and events in support of the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation. We have one of the highest volunteerism rates in the country. We are one of the best places for finding a job.
In many ways, there is much to be proud of in our fair city. Much that is celebrated at Hell Yeah, Prince George and other sites. There is much for our mayor and city counsellors to brag about at the UBCM. Prince George has a lot going for it.
So it came as a shock when we were once again declared a crime capital of Canada. Overall we are 20th in the nation according to Statistics Canada, but in cities over 50,000, we rank third. At least, that is the way Maclean's puts it.
Our mayor's response was to take the magazine to task, arguing small changes for small towns have a bigger effect than larger cities. True if the statement is taken at face value. After all, a single murder impacts our violent crime rating much more than for Vancouver where it has very little impact on their numbers. And yet, for the victim's loved ones, it is a tragedy no matter where it occurs. Trying to break crimes down into statistics doesn't really address the fundamental human tragedy.
That said, StatsCan does give it a go. Their methodology weighs crimes based on their seriousness. Offences that generate longer jail sentences, such as murder, robberies, and serious assaults, are given more weight in their analysis. Since they have used the same methodology for years, their work provides a reasonable comparison of serious crimes in provinces and municipalities on an annual basis and over time.
However, ranking high in StatsCan's analysis does not necessarily mean a city is a dangerous place to live. Consider Grande Prairie, the worst among Canada's 100 largest cities for the second year in a row. It scored triple the Canadian average on the Serious Crime Index developed by StatsCan. (Prince George wasn't even close.)
If you drill down into the data, you find it was number one in total drug violations, firearms usage, impaired driving, fraud and motor-vehicle theft. For Grande Prairie and area, vehicles are stolen at a rate seven times the national average which definitely bolsters their total in the Serious Crime Index. But Grand Prairie doesn't top the charts for murders or assaults. Given the choice of losing a vehicle or losing your life, I think most of us lose the vehicle.
This is the difficulty with any measure of a Serious Crime Index. What constitutes a serious crime and how do they get weighted? Yes, the length of sentence would seem to make sense but it penalizes jurisdictions which hand out longer sentences for the same crime. It also penalizes provinces where petty crimes are treated more severely.
Further, none of the analysis captures the fact that crime rates in Canada have been steadily decreasing since the late 1990s. We live in much safer communities now than 20 years ago, regardless of where you are in Canada.
The statistics for 2015 show a slight uptick in the national average - an increase of 4.5 per cent over 2014 to a national average of 69.7 - but this number is significantly down from the 118.9 recorded for 1998 or the 10,000 reported crimes per 100,000 population in 1992.
On the whole, we live in a relatively safe town in a relatively safe time. We might be third in the nation but we are far better off than many other cities in Canada and around the world.
-- Todd Whitcombe
