Mayor's Roundtable Report

A report to the Mayor as a result of the roundtable. Presented by Don Clairmont, Director, Atlantic Institute of Criminology, April 2008 (All files in PDF )

Violence and Public Safety in HRM Main Report
Appendix
Supplemental Report #1 Telephone Survey
Supplemental Report #2 Mail-Back Survey
Supplemental Report #3 Student Survey
Supplemental Report #4 The Activists
Supplemental Report #5 The Engaged Focus Groups
Supplemental Report #6 Authorities and Experts (Large file)

In November 2006, I felt it important to initiate the Mayor’s Roundtable on Violence and Public Safety in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), in response to growing concerns that violent crime in HRM was escalating. While reports indicate that violent crime has actually been trending downward in HRM for the past two years, the fact that residents of HRM were concerned and, in some cases, felt unsafe in their communities was the impetus for me to strike this Roundtable. 

From the outset we knew the Mayor’s Roundtable on Violence and Public Safety would be a massive undertaking. To ensure the Roundtable was done thoroughly from the start, I engaged Professor Don Clairmont, Director of the Atlantic Institute of Criminology and a nationally renowned expert in the field, to facilitate. Professor Clairmont poured hundreds of hours of planning, research, interviews, analysis and writing into the entire process; as a result, we have been rewarded with a Final Report that is comprehensive, perceptive and useful. We are very grateful to Professor Clairmont for his considerable wisdom, patience and wit, all of which contributed to a Report that provides a wealth of practical information and over 60 insightful recommendations for action.

Great works rarely happen in isolation, and I would like to also thank the hundreds of people who made the Mayor’s Roundtable possible: the Mayor’s Task Force on Violence, Halifax Regional Councillors, HRM staff, Halifax Regional Police and RCMP, businesses, media, academics, statisticians, provincial and federal partners, and other Canadian and American municipalities. Most of all, I would like to thank the thousands of HRM residents who took the time to complete lengthy phone and mail surveys, participate in community roundtable meetings, and provide their invaluable feedback throughout the Roundtable process.

As I have said all along, together we can make a difference, and, indeed, together we have made a difference. 

While a great deal has been done to produce this Roundtable Report, the work is really just beginning. The Report offers a long-term strategy that will roll out over several years. To implement this strategy we will require considerable intergovernmental and interdepartmental cooperation, as well as the commitment and energy of our many Roundtable partners and the community. We will need to work together to ensure the appropriate resources are allocated to complete this important work.

I look forward to working with all of you to ensure we make a positive difference in violent crime and perceptions of violent crime in our respective communities and in Halifax Regional Municipality as a whole. 

Respectfully, I remain

Peter J. Kelly