I heard the same thing when I was in round tables in Saskatchewan from colleagues there, that in those doughnut areas right around the big populated centres, crime is increasing most significantly. I myself do not know what the specific driver is behind those increases, except to say that I certainly hear it from RCMP members and from community members. There is an increasing awareness, I think, of the challenges for RCMP and law enforcement in suburban and in more rural and remote areas such as the area I represent.
It has been suggested that part of the cause is that they know there are vulnerable farms and businesses there, with challenges for law enforcement to respond in a timely way. There have been suggestions that this partly explains the increase.