Environment Committee on May 5th, 2009

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Would you like to explain the amendment?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I'll have Mr. Woodworth elaborate.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, one of the things the bill attempts to do is to make the sentencing options that are available to judges uniform across a number of the acts that are being amended. In the course of reviewing the bill after it was tabled, it was discovered that some of the sentencing powers that were intended to be made uniform were in fact left out of parts of Bill C-16. So this is a housekeeping thing.

We're now in the area of the Arctic.... I'm sorry, I've lost track of the name of the act, but it's the Antarctic waters act or something like that. In this particular act, the amendment of Bill C-16 inadvertently left off an ability for the judge to direct an offender to pay an amount to an educational institution for scholarships for students enrolled in studies relating to the environment. It was an inadvertent omission, and because we're trying to give uniform powers to judges for all of these acts, it should apply to this act as well as to others. In fact, that provision was omitted from some of the others too, so we're putting it in to ensure that there's uniformity.

These studies that are related to the environment can include, for example, a broad array of subject matters, including biology, geography, engineering, and other disciplines, and the term that was used in Bill C-16 in fact only referred to environmental studies. So we have broadened that out to “studies related to the environment” in order to make it consistent and broad across the board.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Would anyone like to raise an issue?

Mr. McGuinty.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Madam Caron, Mr. Woodworth has just said this is going to make uniform what now exists in a number of other statutes being affected by this bill. Is that the case?

[Renée Caron]

We are trying to spread a full suite of creative sentencing options across all of the statutes. As Mr. Woodworth indicated, the change is to broaden the wording from “environmental studies” to capture studies related to the environment in biology, geography, and engineering. The current wording could be slightly narrower, so the proposal is to ensure that it is broadly applicable.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

So how many of the eight primary statutes being amended here already speak to the notion of allowing courts to order offenders to pay for educational funding?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

There are two or three, but I'm verifying that.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

How many are being amended? Take your time.

[Sarah Cosgrove]

Three already do, and there are proposals to ensure that all nine being amended by Bill C-16 contain this provision.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

So all nine will be made consistent with this wording?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

That's right.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Do you have any idea how much money we're talking about?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

This is a discretionary power, so it would be very case specific. In addition to this order power, the judiciary would have a suite of creative sentencing tools. It would be at the judge's discretion.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I understand.

Previous to this bill, how many of these statutes contained this discretionary order?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

I'm aware of three, although it said “environmental studies” as opposed to this broader wording.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Do you know how often it was used and how much money was involved?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

I would have to find an example of that for you. I don't know that off the top of my head.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is the phrase “studies related to the environment” defined anywhere?

[Sarah Cosgrove]

That term will be left for the judiciary to interpret. Given that environmental studies is an actual academic field, it was felt that it was best to broaden the language to allow additional consideration by the judiciary.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Presumably the discretion would be with the judge to decide, for example, whether this money could be allocated to colleges, universities, high schools, apprenticeships, work placements, co-ops, research and development, or laboratories.

[Renée Caron]

It would have to be to an educational institution, so I don't think it could go to employers. There is a separate provision in the full suite on an order of funds to research.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Do you think it would be helpful for judges, who interpret this with their discretion, to be given more guidance? If I were taking this in its plain English meaning and were told that I had discretion, “studies related to the environment” could embrace pretty much all of what I've just enumerated, but they're not necessarily affiliated with an educational institution.

[Renée Caron]

It would be specific to the establishment of a scholarship. Certainly guidance could be provided by the prosecutor to request that this type of order be made with some specific requests that might relate to the offence at hand. It would allow a flexible regime that could be tailored to the specific situation at hand.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I hear you. I'm still a little worried about it.

For example, would a judge be able to allocate these resources to the guild that was represented here last week, to help the industry and the labourers involved in the industry take cooperative courses or take additional training or to become better versed in the new environmental standards that we're trying to bring to bear here? Would that be included?