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B.C. ministry of justice, high-crime communities to meet next week

Representatives from some of the country's top crime-rated areas will converge in Prince George next week, but they won't have far to go. Terrace, Prince Rupert, Fort St.

Representatives from some of the country's top crime-rated areas will converge in Prince George next week, but they won't have far to go.

Terrace, Prince Rupert, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Williams Lake will join a Prince George-led dialogue with provincial staff on Nov. 28.

"The Ministry of Justice committed to sending some senior staff to come and have a conversation with me because I highlighted to them it's not just Prince George that has ranked fairly high in the crime severity list, it's a number of B.C. northern communities," said mayor Shari Green.

The six communities are all featured among the top 30 highest-ranked in Statistic Canada's crime severity index for communities over 10,000, which tracks the changes in severity of police-reported crime from year to year.

It's a conversation that could potentially lead to deeper work and some action items, said Green, about what each community's individual challenges are and whether there are common themes and potential northern B.C. strategies.

The mayor said she also took advantage of having Canada's top RCMP commander, Commissioner Bob Paulson, in the city Saturday to speak to him about the city and the upcoming meeting.

"It would be great to have it on the national radar that this is an overrepresented part of the country and hopefully they're all prepared to have a conversation about where we might be able to strategize, make some improvement," said Green.

The meeting comes on the heels of council's approval of the crime reduction strategy developed by the now-defunct Mayor's Task Force on Crime.

One-time funding in the 2013 budget of $200,000 will fund the six recommended initiatives to contribute to crime reduction and improve public perceptions of crime and safety through 2014.