Justice Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Ms. Jennings, it's not a point of order.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

He wants to answer--

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

It's a request to you. Will you---

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

We are taking time away from other members, because we have a vote coming up in less than five minutes.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Will you ask the minister--

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

No, I will not.

I'm going to go to Monsieur Lemay now and he's going to have his five minutes.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, minister. I heard everything you said. It is quite clear we will never be able to support this. That's why we're in favour of certain amendments. I'm especially referring to the short titles that are not consistent with what the bill states.

For example, the short title of Bill C-16 is "Ending House Arrest for Property and Other Serious Crimes by Serious and Violent Offenders Act". That's not what the bill refers to. We voted against Bills S-6 and C-22 for the same reason. Your good parliamentary secretary came to my constituency to say that we had voted against it. However, that's not true; we voted against the short title, which is completely unrelated to the bill.

If you want to discuss the real issues, we'll do that. On page 180, the total amount of Funding to support victim services and violence prevention in aboriginal communities and to increase national support for missing persons investigations for votes 1 and 5 is $2,449,000. This is a request from aboriginal women. I know that because I sit on the Standing Committee on Indian and Northern Affairs.

Will these amounts be paid directly to the aboriginal communities or will they be allocated to police departments to help increase searches? The problem is victim searches. What do those amounts represent?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Well, they'll do a number of things, Monsieur Lemay.

First of all, with respect to the short titles, you must have the same thing with people. When people say “Bill C-48” or “Bill C-15”, they don't know what you're talking about, so the short titles of bills, I mean, again, you can make a career out of fighting these things, and that's your business—

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

You're very good, minister, and I respect you enormously, but I would like to get an answer to my question. I have two minutes left. And I have another one to ask you.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Fair enough.

Okay. Among other things, this will set up a new national police support system for missing persons that will make it possible for every police officer to have the particulars of missing persons reports at hand. They will assist communities to develop community safety plans. That will be another aspect of it, to increase the safety of aboriginal women and children. It will help communities in compiling a full list of promising practices that communities can adapt rather than starting from scratch.

There will be funding for provinces to adapt and develop culturally appropriate victims services for aboriginal Canadians as well as funding for aboriginal organizations themselves, and groups, to address the unique needs of families of missing aboriginal women. As I said to Monsieur Comartin, this will be an ongoing thing, and I would be glad to inform you as to any application that is successful.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Are these amounts currently available, or will they be as soon as we've given our support?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

They are currently available, yes; they're in the supplementary estimates. You're right. If the government is defeated and--

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

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

No one here wants an election.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

That's less attractive today than perhaps it was yesterday, Monsieur Comartin, but again, I don't want to get into that.

[A voice]

We'll go anytime.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

No one wants there to be an election, apart from certain individuals here.

I imagine the same is true for the Funding for increased support for victims of crime through the Federal Victims Strategy for the creation and enhancement of Child Advocacy Centres across Canada. I would like to know whether, in Quebec, for example, these amounts will be allocated to the youth centres or to other agencies such as the Centre d'aide aux victimes d'actes criminels, or CAVACs. Who will receive that amount? It is extremely important for victim assistance.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Yes, it's the child advocacy centres themselves that will be able to make that application directly to the federal government for direct funding. It's not funding that goes through the province, as sometimes happens, and then people apply to the province. If there is a child advocacy centre that wants to get started up in your riding, or if there is an existing one, it can make the application, and we want to make that as quick as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Thank you.

You have before you the estimates. There are four votes that are customarily called on this.

Would someone like to make an omnibus motion to deal with all four of them in one?

Mr. Dechert, that would be for votes 1b, 5b, 30b, and 35b under Justice.

JUSTICE

Department

Vote 1b--Operating expenditures..........$9,323,836

Vote 5b--The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions – To authorize the transfer of $2,000,000 from Citizenship and Immigration Vote 5, Appropriation Act No. 2, 2010–11 for the purposes of this Vote and to provide a further amount of..........$6,861,000

Courts Administration Service

Vote 30b--Program expenditures..........$2,997,853

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions

Vote 35b--Program expenditures..........$1

(Votes 1b, 5b, 30b, and 35b agreed to on division)

Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) 2010-11 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Thank you.

We're adjourned.