If the streets of New Waterford, N.S., have gotten any safer in the past month, the mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality says he is hearing about it on the sidewalks firsthand. “Being in New Waterford [Monday], I had people stopping me and saying they have noticed a big difference,” CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke said following a council meeting on Tuesday afternoon. On Aug. 19, more than 600 people packed the rink in New Waterford for a community meeting. Some passionately called for change because of drug activity and crime that has left people feeling unsafe. “We have been tasked to go over, walk the beat and we took our E-bikes over,” said Cape Breton Regional Police Const. Gary Fraser, who has been part of the increased police presence in the community that residents were demanding. Fraser said patrolling the streets along with his partner, Const. Jamie Fitzgerald, the past few weeks has been eye-opening, and several arrests have been made. “We let them know we’re here, we’re staying here and we’re going to be here often,” Fraser said. “Now we are staggering our times. We don’t want to be there every day at 1:00. We don’t want to be there every day at 2:00. So, we are staggering mornings, afternoons, early evenings so the bad guy doesn’t know when we are there.” On Tuesday, CBRM council voted to ask the Nova Scotia government to be part of a task force aimed at zeroing in on crime - and some of its root causes - even further. “I brought this to council hoping that they would support it. It was supported unanimously,” said District 11 councillor Darren O’Quinn, who represents the New Waterford area and organized last month’s public meeting. “We’re knocking on every door we can and provincially is one of the places where we haven’t gotten a lot of help yet. So, this is going to bring it to them right away and kind of force their hand, I hope.” “I will be writing to the premier to look for them to put the key ministers together but more importantly put resources so that the departments can respond jointly and collaboratively,” Clarke added. On Monday, there was some help from the federal level. More than $1.75 million is being spent on a program aimed at youth crime prevention. While some of these moves at the political level will have to prove their worth on the streets, the consensus seems to be that things have at least gotten better in the past month. “The big waves, ‘Thank you for coming out, thank you for being here,’” Const. Fraser said of some of the feedback he has received. “So yeah, the atmosphere has changed.” A second public meeting like the one held in August is tentatively expected to take place sometime this winter. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
