Through the eyes of Crime Prevention: Ontario 2013 Budget

The 2013 Ontario Budget was passed in the Ontario legislature on Tuesday June 11, 2013. The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council always looks to the budget through the ‘smart on crime’ lens of crime prevention. The 2013 budget presents some interesting spending and ‘non-spending’ as it relates to crime prevention. We look for information with an eye for the root causes of crime which are economic factors, social environment and family structures. The economic factors we look for include poverty, employment & educational opportunities, and housing. The social environment relates to social inequalities, support to families and neighbourhoods, accessibility to services, and children & youth well-being. The family structures may include parenting challenges & conflict, parental, spousal or children criminality, lack of communication, respect and responsibility, abuse or neglect of children, and family violence.

We have reviewed the budget and analyzed where it will directly or indirectly affect crime prevention through the root causes of crime. Here are few key highlights supporting crime prevention:

• Funding growing to $93 million per year by 2013-24 for the Comprehensive Mental Health and Addiction Strategy which focuses on
  • Early intervention, community-based counseling, employment training, supportive housing, prevention of and treatment for substance abuse and problem gambling
• Developing a narcotics monitoring system to reduce the abuse of prescription narcotics and controlled substance medication
• Creating 23 health care links across the province to encourage greater collaboration and coordination by a patient’s different health care providers

Education: Education is an all around important part of crime prevention. It supports better economic factors, by increasing an individual’s chance for employment and health. It also provides a better social environment and leads to stronger family structures.

• Government will work with the education sector to broaden measure of success to include higher-order skills such as:
  • Character, citizenship, communication, collaboration and teamwork, critical-thinking and problem-solving, creativity and innovation, entrepreneurialism, connection to postsecondary education and careers
• $12.6 million over 3 years for the expansion of summer learning programs

Employment: Employment is very important for improving economic factors; it leads to a positive social environment and better family structures.

• $195 million over 2 years for the Ontario Youth Employment Fund
  • Employment opportunities for 25,000 youth in Ontario
• $200 from the first employment earnings can now be saved by recipients of Ontario Works and ODSP

Poverty: Poverty is directly linked to economic factors that may cause crime. Addressing poverty help to reduce economic factors that may lead to crime and improve the social environment in which people live.

• Reduce child poverty by %25 by continuing the 5-year Poverty Reduction Strategy, which includes:
  • Ontario Child Benefit, full-day kindergarten, tax relief
• 5-year extension of the Investment in Affordable Housing program announced in the 2013 federal budget, this should provide funding for:
  • Construction & renovation of affordable housing units, home ownership assistance, rent supplements, shelter allowances, renovation & repair of accommodation for victims of family violence

Aboriginal Peoples: Aboriginal Peoples are a large part of our population and are an important factor in preventing crime. Support and improvements to Aboriginal Peoples directly affects all the root causes of crime – economic factors, social environment and family structures.

• $5 million per year to improve student achievement and explore strategies for successful transition from on-reserve schools to provincially funded schools
• Develop a multi-year Aboriginal Children and Youth Strategy, which will focus on:
  • Building community driven, integrated and culturally appropriate supports to help Aboriginal children and young people group up healthy and reach their full potential
• $4 million for 40 front-line positions for First Nation police services

Policing and Crime Prevention: policing and crime prevention are key ways to prevent crime directly. Funding and support are essential in order to create a social environment in which people feel safe and productive, improving economic factors and creating positive family structures.

• $12.5 million annually for Provincial Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy and the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy which focus on:
  • Intervention, prevention, enforcement, and community mobilization strategies such as dedicated neighbourhood police officers
  • Currently 17 police services participate in PAVIS
• $30 million over 3 years to Legal Aid Ontario, strengthening the capacity of Family Law Service Centres and other community legal clinics across Ontario

Children and Youth: Children and youth are the future of society and are directly related to crime prevention. In order to improve the future economic factors, social environments and family structures we need to work directly with the children and youth within our society.

• Ontario Early Year Policy Framework – implement full-day kindergarten and support child care system
• Youth Action Plan (& Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities) – increase the number of Youth Outreach Workers

Areas the budget is not supporting crime prevention:

• NO mention of C-10 – this is important for crime prevention as it has direct impacts economic factors, for example personal taxes and employment insurance. The fact that the budget did not mention this is concerning to crime prevention as it will continue to be part of federal legislation.
• NO mention of Ontario Crime Prevention Framework – the Ontario Crime Prevention Framework: A Framework for Action is a booklet intended to:
  • raise awareness and generate a dialogue on crime prevention in Ontario;
  • highlight the opportunities to move forward;
  • set the stage for the development of further crime prevention work with will build and enhance crime prevention partnerships, encourage the development of coordinated, multi-sectorial responses and promote community leadership and participation in crime prevention.

The fact that the budget does not mention this is noteworthy for future crime prevention as we intend to and assume the province intends to participate and follow the Ontario Crime Prevention Framework.

• NO mention of how Ontario will pay for prisons – the document “Funding Requirement and Impact of the ‘Truth in Sentencing Act’” prepared by Rajakar A., and Mathilakath, R. states, “[…] the cost of new construction stemming from “Truth in Sentencing Act” will be borne in the proportion of approximately 21% to 22% by the federal GC, and 78% to 79% by the provincial governments.” The fact that our provincial budget does not discuss the costs or spending related to prison construction is noteworthy for future crime prevention. It is important to understand how the province is planning to fund the construction of new prisons and support the social environment and economic factors directly related to this.
• ONLY 60% of Drummond report recommendations being implemented – The Drummond report, “‘The Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services’” was established in 2011 to provide advice to the government on how to deliver the most effective and efficient public services possible[…]” (from 2013 Ontario Budget, page 111). This is important for crime prevention because it is directly related to the root causes of crime and crime prevention.