Evidence of meeting #71 for Justice and Human Rights in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was prosecutions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
I will let Ms. Proulx answer.
9:30 a.m.
Chantal Proulx Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
We have various types of integrated teams in different sectors. We have integrated teams for proceeds of crime, counterfeiting, borders and financial market fraud. So there are four different types, the most recent team being the ones dealing with counterfeiting which was, I believe, announced just this week. This is a model that we are applying on the wider-scale because we found that it worked well and enabled us to better prepare our prosecution files once charges were laid. We like this model and we are using it in more than one sector. When the teams are approved by Cabinet, they are, obviously, subject to ministerial evaluations. The money allocated for these teams has been renewed.
9:30 a.m.
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Excuse me, but this is important. What is the composition of these teams?
9:30 a.m.
Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
The teams include Crown attorneys, police officers and other experts specialized in a particular sector. In the integrated teams that look after proceeds of crime, there are accountants and tax investigators assigned by Revenue Canada. In the integrated teams that deal with counterfeiting, there are other experts in this field. These are multidisciplinary teams comprised of experts that can contribute to the work of the team.
9:35 a.m.
Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
We will request Cabinet ministers to keep them when they examine the renewal of the budgets.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Art Hanger
I was intent on the answers, because your questions were so good.
Mr. Bagnell.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Can you tell me if there are any new costs to the government? You're just taking a person from one office and putting them in another office. In fact, sometimes you're not even moving, but you're just making a new card. So are there any new costs to the government; and if so, how much?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
I'd indicated to Ms. Jennings—
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
I'll skip that question, if you've already answered it. I have another question.
Do you do studies of projected business?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
We do.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
When you're doing your estimates and everything, such as projections for the future about things that are going to affect your office, the amount of workload, and everything, I assume you do projections of those into the future in determining your budget.
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
We do some of that. Each of our regional offices does a business plan in which we ask them to look at their workload and look at the environment to see whether there are any new initiatives locally that might affect the workload they'll face in the future. For example, in Ontario they can look to see whether the City of Toronto has announced a new priority on cracking down on drugs.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
We have one of the most aggressive agendas in the justice committee in a long time. A number of the witnesses have said this is going to lead to a lot more trials, etc. Have you taken this into account and put in increased costs for it?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Yes. When an initiative is being proposed, we are involved in the planning of the initiative. If it's an initiative that will result in an increase in the number of investigations, we'll argue that because of that, money has to be set aside to hire additional prosecutors.
That's what happened with the federal policing initiative. You'll see in our report on plans and priorities that we're getting, I believe, $9 million this fiscal year to hire additional prosecutors.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
I have one more question, and then I'll share with Ms. Jennings.
Did you put in—for instance, on bills such as Bill C-10, where fewer people will plea bargain, because there are stiffer penalties—more money for the longer court time that is anticipated?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
After consulting with the expert on this one, the answer generally is yes. If it's going to affect the amount of drug work we do, we will typically seek additional financing.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
My short question is coming back to the corporate infrastructure, which will require additional recurring costs. There was a move on in successive previous governments to attempt to encourage independent federal agencies to look at the possibility of shared services, whether in HR, finance, access to Information. Have you done the study to determine the feasibility of doing that?