By Roman Hayter
The community of Sucker River is introducing a new home surveillance rebate program. The program’s purpose is to encourage residents to purchase surveillance cameras to help combat crime in the community.
The rebate will contribute to one-third of the purchase price of any outdoor home security camera or system, up to a maximum rebate of $150. “We feel that giving community members here a rebate on purchasing cameras will help deter crime,” said Lac La Ronge Indian Band Councillor Devin Bernatchez.
Each property is eligible to receive the rebate once, and all recipients of the rebate will be placed on a list of homes with security cameras. All purchases of security cameras beginning January 1 of this year will be eligible for the rebate program.
“All recipients with a rebate will be placed on a list of homes with security cameras and then we can actually use these, say there’s a crime that happens in the community, we’ll involve the RCMP and we want to work together to combat crime in our community so this would enable us to do that,” Bernatchez said. “There’s been an increase in gang activity, an increase in violence, and an increase in vandalism, so it’s incumbent upon us to try and help our communities become safer, and we feel that this does that.”
Sucker River adopted the home surveillance rebate program from the Village of Air Ronge’s program, which began in October.
Sucker River residents are strongly encouraged to turn on outdoor lighting, keep all valuables locked up and out of sight, talk with neighbours to exchange contact information, keep residences looking lived in, and report any suspicious activity to RCMP or LLRIB security to deter crime in the community.