Alberta will spend $1.9 million on a series of programs designed to proactively cut down on crime in Edmonton, while reaching out to a community that has lost far too many of its young to violence.

Provincial officials have eyed a rising number of drug- and gang-related homicides in the province's Somali-Canadian community in recent years and have been urged by community advocates to intervene.

The funding the province announced Tuesday seeks to curb future violence by reaching out to young and new community members who could eventually find themselves at risk of getting involved with crime.

The goal is to provide services and support to young people well before they find themselves in trouble with the law.

"The idea is to give young immigrants proper role models and things to do," said CTV Edmonton's Bill Fortier, summing up the funding in a recent report.

"But critics suggest the province is paying for solutions before it's even really identified the problem."

The funding breaks down in the following manner:

  • The largest investment of $1.3 million will be for so-called "wrap-around programming" that seeks to help new Canadians integrate into mainstream society. Advocates say integration has been a problem that has long plagued the Somali-Canadian community.
  • Alberta will also spend $400,000 on mentoring programs, to be administered through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Edmonton.
  • The province will also spend $202,000 to provide academic support and after-school programming to young Somali-Canadians.

Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford said that if the province "can provide these communities with the necessary early support, we stand a better chance of keeping young people out of the criminal justice system."

Her comments were echoed by Frank Oberle, the province's solicitor general and minister of public security, who admitted "it's a complex issue with no simple solution."

But he expressed confidence the programs being supported by the government "add to our multi-pronged approach to help reduce crime in this province."

Continued violence

The new funding follows a call from a pair advocacy groups for Alberta to create a task force to probe the deaths of many Somali-Canadians who have been slain in the province in recent years.

Edmonton's Alberta Somali Community Center and the Ottawa-based Canadian Somali Congress say there are approximately 30 unsolved murders -- a total that has not been verified by the province or police -- of members of the Alberta Somali community that have occurred in recent years.

The deaths have occurred in different Alberta cities, including Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray.

The plan to implement the new programs was criticized by Alberta Somali Community Centre executive director Mahamad Accord who said the province should focus on identifying the root causes of the violence.

"We are trying to treat a disease that we don't even know what it is," Accord said.

Other community members welcome the province's efforts to reach out to youth who may find themselves at risk.

"It is very good, actually, the way I see it," Ruqia Towfiq, the mother of a four-year-old son, told CTV Edmonton.

Towfiq said her young son can benefit from these programs, which will give him positive friends and role models to surround himself with.

"It is very important to do some activities while they are small or while they are growing, up," said Towfiq.

With a report from CTV Edmonton's Bill Fortier