I'm a bit surprised to hear you're happy with that budget. If I were Minister of Justice, with everything that you stated, with all the bills that are in front of Parliament, I'd be a bit scared. What I see in Justice is a decline in your budget. In certain aspects it's going to hurt. I'm not too sure it's going to be positive. You're a good cheerleader for the government; I'll give you points for that.
My question is as such. I'll just take, for example,
the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Recently, I was reading the office's 2012-13 Report on Plans and Priorities. I expect 2013-2014 to be fairly similar.
In 2011-2012, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had $141.5 million. In 2012-2013—the expiring fiscal year—expenditures totaled $156.3 million, which included the additional budgets allocated during the year. For 2013-2014, $144.2 million is projected. That is almost equivalent to the actual expenditures from 2012-2013.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions says that his organization's workload is increasing by roughly 2.5% a year. His office receives a huge number of requests for the services of lawyers who prosecute criminal cases throughout the country and crown prosecutors who enforce the vast majority of federal laws. You can't tell us that you are happy to see the budget reduced to this level or—after telling us about the great measures the government is implementing in the area of youth criminal justice—to see that the government is also cutting over $30 million from the grant budget for young offenders programs. It seems to me that the government is contradicting itself.
You may be happy with the bills you are introducing, but when it comes to walking the talk, I am not sure your budget is in line with your government's ambitions in terms of law and order.