I had a meeting with Minister Toews back in March. One thing we discussed was the lack of discussion around what victims need. I'm learning policies in government so bear with me, but do we have a victims bill pertaining to this? Maybe we need a corresponding V-37 that focuses on where the money is. It's like a transaction; you have money coming in; you have money going out. Sorry, but I work at Scotiabank.
We're starting to see victims bills. In the U.K. there are huge changes right now, some of it based on restorative justice, which we're not talking about here. We are seeing it in New Zealand and the United States as well. There are changes looking at what victims need.
One thing that comes to mind is that probably most victim service workers in some provinces are volunteers. Some provinces have paid full- and part-time staff. There may be consistency there. In the case of a murder, the first three to six months is a stage of shock. They deal with the homicide investigators the first couple of weeks, and then they're passed on to the victim service worker. That involvement might last three to six months, but victim service workers can't keep a case file that long. I had to go back to them 15 years later. There's no mandated time that victims can work with them, but it seems a lot shorter than the victims actually need.
That's why I'd like to see three stages. The homicide investigators, and in Vancouver we have IHIT, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, have a victim liaison. Then the victim would go to the victim service workers for another three to six months. It should be mandated and not vague because the victims don't understand what's going on. After that the victims would be referred to the bereavement programs, such as the BC Bereavement Helpline, to get them engaged in an eight-week series of support groups and monthly drop-in groups, as they wish. A lot of them are quite willing and interested in doing that. The response rate is huge because there's no support out there.