Crime costs Canadian taxpayers $43 billion annually: report

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld and THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Canada’s annual crime bill will be a hard pill for taxpayers to swallow. According to a landmark Justice Canada report, that bill comes due at $43 billion.

Data from 2014 through 2022 indicates that police-reported crime rose nearly a quarter (23%), from 1,793,612 incidents to 2,206,454, according to a July 27 Statistics Canada report Police Reported Crime Statistics In Canada.

In particular, the number of homicides increased by 54% from 516 cases in 2014 to 796 last year. Other violent crimes, including attempted murders and assaults, rose by 21% each.

“Victims bear the direct costs of crime and incur both tangible and intangible costs,” said the report Costs Of Crime In Canada. “The tangible costs estimated in this study include medical costs.”

Researchers broke down the $43.2 billion annual cost into several factors, including expenses from police overtime to victims’ lost wages, funeral expenses and trauma, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The traumatic experience of being a victim can cause severe pain and suffering,” wrote researchers, which they designate as an “intangible cost.”

According to the report, those “intangible costs” are estimated at $14.5 billion a year.

“Placing a monetary value on intangible costs may seem insensitive but it is critical to estimating the costs of social phenomena,” said Costs Of Crime. “Intangible costs are very personal and affect victims acutely.”

The researchers interpreted the impacts of crime this way to help policymakers “budget and allocate resources more effectively.”

“Crime in Canada is a costly social phenomenon that affects everyone,” said the justice department. “The effects of crime are far-reaching.”

Be advised that this is an ongoing and evolving news story.