Justice Committee on May 30th, 2007

[Greg Yost]

That is an offence which was added to the bill by the standing committee during the last Parliament and which we amended somewhat. The purpose is to separate these activities: the taking of drugs and the operating of a vehicle. We think that a driving prohibition would deter young people, in particular, from carrying marijuana in their car and being tempted to smoke it, thereby impairing their abilities. That is the rationale.

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

Let's say, for instance, that I and a member of my family are going to the cottage. The person I am with does not know that I have in my glove comportment or elsewhere 15 grams of marijuana. This is a fictitious example; I am a teetotaler and straight, as you know, Mr. Yost. I've never taken drugs in my life. I am very straight in that regard.

Could the person in the vehicle be accused of drug trafficking? How will we deal with that type of situation?

[Greg Yost]

This offence only involves the person operating the vehicle and not passengers. However, if the driver knows that a passenger has an illicit drug he could give him, the driver may be charged. People should thus be careful with respect to what passengers are doing, if they are carrying drugs. If you know these people, tell them you do not accept any drugs in your car.

[The Chair, Conservative, Art Hanger]

Thank you, Monsieur Ménard.

Mr. Comartin.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Minister, for being here, as well as the other officials.

Mr. Minister, you made the point that a number of U.S. states have adopted this methodology. Do you have a figure of how many of the 50 states have, at this point?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

I can get that for you. I know I specifically mentioned one particular state.

Mr. Yost.

[Greg Yost]

I thought it was almost universal in the United States, but I'm looking towards Corporal Graham, who is in touch with the American experts on this.

[Cpl Evan Graham]

There are 46 states and the District of Columbia currently in the drug evaluation and classification program, and the other states are either in the process of applying to it or being certified as a DECP state.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

If I can pursue that, I know the Johns Hopkins study was done somewhere between 1988 and 1992, right? Has there been anything more recent done of a nature as extensive as that? I know there has been some update, but has there been a major study done in the form of a verification study?

[Cpl Evan Graham]

There was a study done by the Southern California Research Institute about 10 years ago. A study was also done in Arizona, and one in Minnesota, and we are currently in the process of doing one here in Canada.

We just finished one, looking at the evaluations. We've done it, to date, in Canada to see how accurate the evaluators are compared to the toxicology samples that have been attained. That was done by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and came out to a 98.6% accuracy rate.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

In the Canadian study, those would be cases where it was voluntary.

[Cpl Evan Graham]

Exactly. It would be both training and operational. They were all done by DREs in Canada.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Is that study public?

[Cpl Evan Graham]

It is.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Great. Could you provide a copy of that to the clerk of this committee, please?

[Cpl Evan Graham]

Certainly.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

And could we also have the Arizona study?

[Cpl Evan Graham]

Certainly.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Mr. Minister, I'm again not sure if it's Corporal Graham who should be answering this, but I want to follow up Mr. Murphy's question about the funding for training. You said today that your government was committed to providing this. I'm not sure who's going to answer this question. We got that commitment from you, so maybe Corporal Graham should answer.

At this point, assuming this legislation is in place by the fall, optimistically, or by the end of the year, at the worst, would additional funds be needed in this fiscal period--that is, until the end of March--or at the very least, can you tell me on an annual basis how much funding is required to provide the necessary training?

[Cpl Evan Graham]

We currently have sufficient funds for this fiscal year. For ongoing sustainability and expansion of the program, we would require additional funding.

Part of the problem we have is the capacity to deliver the training. There are currently two full-time instructors in this program, and two more should be coming online very soon, seconded from other police agencies. We need to have at least 10 people doing this full time to deliver the training across the country.

To that end, we would require additional funding. How much funding would depend on how much training we are going to do. We have worked out a number of scenarios as to what funding we would require, but it also will depend on the cost sharing with the police agencies. I can't give you an exact dollar figure.

I can tell you that we currently have $2.1 million budgeted for this fiscal year and we expect to spend all of it.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

So you do not have a forecast at this time.

Perhaps, Mr. Minister, it's not fair to—

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

He doesn't have one. We have one for this year, and it's $2.1 million.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

But in the full year of operation, you had one. I want to ask a supplementary question to that.

Have there been consultations with the provinces? They're of course going to be picking up a significant part of this tab, above and beyond the work the RCMP does.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

The provinces have all been consulted with respect to the implementation and the drafting of this particular bill, Mr. Comartin, and my understanding is that it's received widespread support.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

The first part of the question was, do you have a budgetary figure for a full fiscal period?