Evidence of meeting #76 for Justice and Human Rights in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
No, I don't have the precise figures with me. I can tell you what we spend on average per year.
4:05 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
It's about $3 million to $4 million.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Of the $130 million that is available for expenditures on drug offences, the Criminal Code, and terrorism, what is the breakdown, because you said $4 million? How much for drugs and how much for the Criminal Code then?
4:05 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
I don't have that breakdown with me today. I'm sorry.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Okay, if you can provide that, it would be great.
Do you also have any statistics with regard to terrorism and with regard to the number of investigations pursuant to section 83.28 of the Criminal Code, which is specific to terrorism, and the number of prosecutions, and the number of convictions?
4:05 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
In respect to investigations, we don't, as you know, conduct or direct the investigations. That's the responsibility of the police. I'm unable to speak to investigations that are ongoing. We'll only advise on investigations when requested by the police.
In terms of numbers of people who've received a recognizance with conditions, to date there have been none.
4:05 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
The peace bond has been the vehicle that's been used.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Okay, good enough. Thank you.
I'm expecting this might go to Monsieur Legault or Mr. Piragoff.
Under the 2015-16 main estimates, it says:
As the primary legal services provider to other government departments and agencies, the Department of Justice collects fees for services rendered. An additional $296.2 million is planned to be collected and expended in 2015–16 under the department’s Net Vote Revenue Authority.
How much of that $296.2 million is from fees, and what are the total expenses related to the provision of the legal services?
4:05 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Justice
The NVA, what we call net vote authority, the $296 million is what we expect we would be invoicing other departments for the services we provide to them in addition to our own A-base funding. Our expectation, obviously, is that we will bill that full amount against all the organizations. As such there is no breakdown per se of the $296 million.
When it comes to our operations, you have to add that $296 million to $241 million of A-base in vote 1. Some of the money, obviously, may go to different groups within the Department of Justice, some will be for the benefit of specific client departments, and others will be for the Justice portfolio. Sometimes we need to provide advice to government and not, again, one specific department. That's part of it as well. You add these two amounts, roughly speaking, and that's the cost of the provision of legal services to the government.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
You probably answered my question, but also, in 2013-14 there was a horizontal review of legal services to improve their delivery. Can you provide to this committee the results of that review?
4:05 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Justice
We've gone through a number of exercises. One of them was the deficit reduction action plan that the government implemented across the government as a whole. Obviously, Justice was subject to that. We had to cut $67.5 million from our budget. Part of that was from vote 5, part of it was from vote 1, basically our operations, which we did in a series of measures. For example, we merged some legal services, and we implemented some benchmarks in our operations, for example, in litigation and different types of cases. We reviewed some of our fiscal asset subscriptions, for example, and implemented a number of other optimization measures to become more efficient to meet that target. After three years, ending on March 31, 2015, we had achieved that objective.
We currently have another exercise, which is a legal services review, a review that started at the beginning of 2014. We are now in the second year of a two-year program to reduce our costs some more and also to avoid some costs in the future. All this for a total of about $52 million. We're in the midst of it right now.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
That's perfect.
According to the 2015-16 main estimates, while the government's base resources related to the cost of legal services were reduced as Justice underwent a strategic review in 2008 and the deficit reduction action plan, the net vote revenue authority has grown.
Can you explain why the cost related to delivery of legal services has increased?
I probably know the logical answer, but I wonder if you could provide us with some detail.
4:10 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Justice
We have had some cost increases over the years, for example, salaries and things like that. At the same time, our budget allocated to the provision of legal services itself has not increased. If I'm not mistaken, it does decrease over time. The number of the NVA itself fluctuates from year to year, depending on what we expect in terms of demand on the part of our clients.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
David Wilks Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Lastly, within the 2015-16 main estimates, the actual operating expenditures for the Department of Justice in 2013-14 were $308 million, and 2015-16 represents approximately $242 million, a difference of $66 million.
Could you explain the decrease of $66 million in operating expenditures?
4:10 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Justice
Part of that would be the impact of DRAP itself. Part of it will be the cut of the LSR, legal services review, in 2014-15. That would account for about roughly $30 million. In addition to that, we've had a number of sunsetting programs that have terminated. That would account for the difference.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mike Wallace
Thank you very much, Mr. Wilks.
Thanks for those questions and answers.
The next questioner, from the New Democratic Party, is Madame Péclet.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Saunders, you quickly went over this topic in your presentation, but I would like a few more details.
The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections now reports to you. Could you give me some more details on the amounts you mentioned briefly in your presentation?
Could you tell me the budget allocated to the operation of the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections?
Could you also compare the amount that office receives with the amount it received before?
Are we just talking about a transfer of funds? Will the budget be the same?
4:10 p.m.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Since Ms. Roussel managed that project for us, I will ask her to answer that question.
4:10 p.m.
Kathleen Roussel Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
The Act to amend the Canada Elections Act already included provisions whereby the employees and the budget of the commissioner's office could be transferred. We therefore negotiated with Elections Canada and identified the employees from the commissioner's office. The employees and their salary budget were transferred to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
For salaries, there is no real change in the budget. For the other expenses, the operating and maintenance costs, we transferred what the commissioner had spent in previous years. But he also has access to treasury for any costs related to his mandate that are not covered by his allocation. That procedure is going to be maintained.
As for the commissioner's budget, what he spent last year and the projection for this year is pretty much the same, with one exception. The office literally moved last February, that is, in the previous financial year. That move resulted in unusual costs. Otherwise, the costs should be more or less the same. If there is an election, it is possible that the costs for investigations will increase. The commissioner will then seek an allocation from treasury.
4:15 p.m.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
For salaries, it is about $2.5 million. For expenditures other than salaries, we are talking about $1.5 million annually.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Very good.
The minister was asked a question about one program. There was an amount of $1.6 million to support services to victims, do violence prevention in First Nations communities and increase support nationally for missing persons investigations. The minister said that, in the upcoming supplementary estimates, he was going to ask for $2 million. He mentioned expenditures of about $1.8 million just to fight prostitution.
Could you break down those costs?
If $1.6 million is being transferred to another program, could you tell me the exact name of that program?
What will that amount be spent on?
As I do not know who can answer that question, I will not ask anyone in particular.