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When I ran for mayor in 2002 and 2005, I pressed the city to hire 25 more police officers to reduce case load and to provide better safety for our streets. In 2005, it was reported by Statistics Canada that Coquitlam had one of the worst rates of population to police officer ratios in the country for a city of its size. In 2005, this topic was even raised by MP James Moore (Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam), who said: “Coquitlam has the second to lowest citizen-to-police ratio in Canada. This fact hurts our quality of life and endangers our community.”
In Coquitlam, marijuana grow operations and meth labs are a major problem not only for police, but for the neighbourhood and, ultimately, our community. They attract violence, like home invasions, and innocent people are getting hurt. I support Supt. Lepine's move towards crime-prevention policies to find the root causes of these crimes, to locate the hotspots and to remove repeat offenders from our streets. We also need a new community police station in Maillardville as part of a strategy to revitalize the area's francophone heritage.
In addition, I support the improvements for Coquitlam Fire/Rescue. The Coquitlam Search and Rescue team should receive better funding by our city. We must update our emergency plan to prepare for the event of a major disaster. As councillor, I will also press for more funding from senior levels of government for flood protection and sand removal of major rivers.
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