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Horgan says Surrey youth anti-gang program would get $500K annually from NDP government

Surrey Now - 3/21/2017

SURREY — A New Democratic provincial government would provide $500,000 annually to help fund Surrey's anti-gang Wraparound program, opposition leader John Horgan announced today.

He staged a pre-election presser outside Fleetwood Park Secondary on Monday.

"We wanted to make sure we were in the heart of Surrey to make this commitment to the young people of this region," he told reporters.

"There has been a rash of shootings in Surrey, on average one a week for the past two years. The community has had enough, everybody has had enough, and the B.C. Liberals have been asleep at the switch."

The Wraparound youth program is a joint initiative between the school district and RCMP to provide mentors for at-risk children, Horgan noted, "so they can be given role models to not get in to the pipeline that will take them in to the gang life, but get them on-track so they can have meaningful and productive lives in the community.

"The B.C. Liberals have ignored this program," Horgan said. "In fact they boosted it one time only at the height of the crisis a year ago and have neglected it ever since."

He said an NDP government would work to put kids on the "right track.

"I was on the wrong track when I was in high school and I was saved by teachers and mentors who stepped up for me," the NDP leader said.

Horgan said that last year 30 kids were on a wait list. "How do you deliver a program that's supposed to be designed to helping kids in a school district when you were going to say to half of them they have to wait until there's adequate funding? We want to stop that, we want to eliminate the wait list."

Horgan said program organizers currently have to apply annually through the provincial civil forfeiture program to get one-time grants. "We want to make it a secure, stable ongoing program," he said, adding that $500,000 annual contributions would keep it "stable and secure."

"That's the least I believe we can do to start our way out of the violence that we've seen in this community for so long. Citizens deserve to feel safe, kids deserve to have the opportunities they need to feel safe."

The provincial election is on May 9.

tom.zytaruk@thenownewspaper.com