Justice Committee on May 13th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Thank you for those questions and answers.

Our next questioner, from the Conservative party, is Mr. Dechert.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of our officials for being here. I'd just like to say on my behalf and on behalf of the committee that we're grateful for the good work that you and all your colleagues do at the Department of Justice, the Administrative Tribunals Support Service, and the Public Prosecutor service. I think your colleagues do a tremendous service to the people of Canada, so thank you for that.

I have a couple of questions about some of the increases I've seen in the spending in the estimates over the last year.

I'll start with you, Mr. Legault. The Department of Justice shows an increase of $14.4 million in funding for the delivery of immigration and refugee legal aid in the provinces and territories. Can you give us a little more detail on those programs?

[Pierre Legault]

Indeed, in the 2015-16 main estimates, we are reflecting this $14.4 million that you're talking about. It's composed of some temporary and some permanent funding. As far as the temporary funding is concerned, we have $11.5 million for immigration and refugee legal aid for an additional two years going to 2016-17. We also have funding for court-ordered counsel in federal prosecutions, $1.65 million in relief and program operations, $1.28 million of which was made permanent.

Obviously, legal aid remains a very important part of our justice system to ensure that we have a fair, accessible, and relevant system for all Canadians.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Very good. I notice with respect to the new prostitution legislation, there's an allocation for an increase of $1.9 million in support of funding for non-legislative measures to address prostitution. Can you give us some details of the types of programs this money will be applied to?

[Pierre Legault]

Yes. We have $20 million in new funding that was announced, and of this, we will be receiving $10.47 million over five years, and Public Safety will also be receiving some of that funding to the tune of $9.53 million. We will be engaged, obviously, in making sure that the money reaches the communities and the people who are directly affected by prostitution, and in trying to get people out of the practice of prostitution.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Do you have any idea what these programs will look like at this point or are they still being developed?

[Pierre Legault]

The kinds of services that are provided are to help people with addictions, for example, who need trauma therapy, employment training, financial literacy training, perhaps some transitional housing if people have to be relocated and taken off the streets, emergency safe houses, drop-in centres, and things like that. We're going out to communities and people interested in the subject matter and asking for proposals, and the proposals will be assessed and then funding will be provided.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

That's very helpful. Thank you.

I also noticed in the estimates an increase of $11 million for renewal of the aboriginal justice strategy. Could you provide us with some specifics on how these programs help aboriginal communities?

[Pierre Legault]

Yes, the additional funding will be at the current level of $11 million in 2016-17. Part of that will be in grants and contributions to the tune of $9.8 million. There's also $1.2 million that will be going to operating expenditures. Those are cost-effective measures that reach 800 communities across Canada and an untold number of people directly. It's a very efficient way to deliver services and reduce the impact on police forces and so on, so it's a good alternative.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Are these services delivered directly by Department of Justice officials, by aboriginal communities themselves, or by other NGOs?

[Pierre Legault]

No, we're providing money, and it's delivered by other organizations—

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Primarily to aboriginal organizations, I'm assuming?

[Pierre Legault]

—and by us as well.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I have a question for Mr. Saunders, from the director of public prosecutions office.

The main estimates provide for an expenditure of $130 million, and it comes under the rubric of “Drug, Criminal Code, and terrorism prosecution program”. Could you give us more details and explain the effectiveness of these programs for the committee?

[Brian J. Saunders]

That program, as the title indicates, covers three areas.

The drug prosecutions form the majority of our prosecutions across the country. We are responsible for the drug prosecutions in every jurisdiction, except in Quebec where the charges laid by the Sûreté du Québec or the Montreal police force are prosecuted by the Province of Quebec prosecution service, and in New Brunswick, where the charges laid by municipal police forces are prosecuted by the province.

The Criminal Code refers largely to Criminal Code prosecutions in the north, in the three territories. We conduct all the Criminal Code prosecutions in the north. In the south we conduct fraud, organized crime related to drugs, and the terrorism prosecutions. We single out terrorism prosecutions as an element of that program because it's an important, high-priority element along with organized crime, as mentioned in our report on plans and priorities.

We estimate that last year we spent a little over $4 million conducting terrorism prosecutions. You might know that at present there are 12 people before the courts, facing terrorism charges, and there are a number of people facing peace bond applications. That is an area where we expect there could be an increase in work, given the recent reallocation by the RCMP of members to work in that area.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I would imagine those types of prosecutions are quite expensive.

[Brian J. Saunders]

They are, and we do put our most senior counsel on those prosecutions. They often take more than one counsel to conduct the prosecution, given the disclosure problems that could arise and the motions that might arise.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Interesting, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Mr. Legault would like to add to it.

[Pierre Legault]

If I may, I referred to 2016-17 in my answer on the aboriginal justice strategy. Obviously we're talking about the main estimates for 2015-16, so that's a small detail.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Okay, thank you. We got that.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

You mentioned the drug prosecutions. Is the quantity of cases or the complexity of cases increasing or decreasing year by year?

[Brian J. Saunders]

In some cases it has levelled off in that area, and if anything, we're seeing in certain areas like simple possession, a slight downward trend in those types of cases. As I said, they do form a major part of our activity, but they've gone down to about 400 cases for simple possession in the course of the year.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

These are for all forms of illicit drugs.

Are there any—

[Brian J. Saunders]

All the in-house are in there, yes.