CRIME FIGHTERS GET A LIFT

London Will Get Its Share Of $6.3 Million In Provincial
Funds

London police will get a share of $6.3 million to battle guns and
gangs, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday during a campaign-style
swing through Hamilton.

With a tough election campaign looming, the Liberals moved to bolster
their law-and-order record with the avowed expansion of the anti-guns
and gangs program to cities outside Toronto.

The money will be spread across several communities, but it's unclear
how much London police will get or when the cash will start to flow.

Those details, said London West Liberal MPP Chris Bentley, will come
within days.

The vow of extra crime-fighting cash comes as the Liberals begin the
unofficial, four-month campaign for Ontario's Oct. 10 election, after
McGuinty pulled the plug Tuesday on the legislature three weeks ahead
of schedule.

Bentley shrugged off suggestions the announcement was political and
that city police may never see the money, saying it's "good news for
the people of London."

"The work of the government goes on even when the legislature is not
sitting," he said.

Ab Chahbar, who chairs the city's police services board, said the
money is welcome even if it may be political.

"It's the right thing to do, whether there's an election or not," he
said.

"My view is that the funds will be advanced prior to the election in
October. I don't believe it is an empty announcement."

The board, along with police Chief Murray Faulkner, have lobbied
Queen's Park for more cash to battle guns and gangs.

Faulkner has long complained London gets Toronto's crime exports, with
criminals driving down the Highway 401 to commit crimes here, and that
the city should get money to help deal with the problem.

Yesterday, he said he's thankful something is coming.

"Not knowing a dollar value, but knowing we're going to get something,
is better than what we've got now, which is nothing," he said.

Faulkner said any money would support the work of a police task force
set up to take illegal guns off the street.

The life of the task force was extended until the fall and Faulkner is
considering making it permanent.

"Guns, gangs and drugs are a huge issue we need to deal with in this
community," he said."This is a priority for us."

Funding from yesterday's announcement will help to tackle crime on the
streets of cities such as Hamilton, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, London and
Waterloo, McGuinty said.

The money is part of about $12 million in funding to fight drugs in
Ontario, targeting methamphetamine labs and marijuana grow operations.

"If young people make the wrong choices -- if they pick up a gun, if
they join a gang -- then we'll be there with the full force of the
law," McGuinty told a room filled with police officers and regional
chiefs at the police headquarters in Hamilton.

"We all have more work to do. That's why we're giving our police
services more resources to continue the fight against gun crimes."

The anti-guns and gangs program had a trial run in Toronto, and is now
being expanded in the Golden Horseshoe, Essex County, Durham, Kenora,
London, Ottawa, Peel Region, Thunder Bay, Waterloo and York Region.