Public Safety Committee on March 24th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Baker.

We'll now go to Mr. Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And thank you to the minister and all the heads who are here today.

My first question, and Mr. Davies touched on it, has to do with the disaster financial assistance arrangements. It's a significant component of the main estimates, and I wonder if there is anything the minister or Mr. Baker would like to add to their previous answer.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Chair, thank you very much.

Public Safety Canada administers the disaster financial assistance arrangements on behalf of the government. The provinces and the municipalities are the first responders, if I can use that term, in meeting the costs of the response and recovery following a natural disaster. The costs are then recoverable through the DFAA.

There have been a number of amendments that we've made to the DFAA, which certainly will benefit areas like my own province that has experienced a flooding. Indeed many individuals in my riding in the city of Winnipeg are very worried about the impact of this flooding. At a time when Parliament should be focusing on very practical issues, like the flooding in Manitoba, unfortunately the opposition parties appear to be focused on having an election. So in my province of Manitoba we'll be having an election because of the opposition, at a time when my energies as a regional minister should be focused on ensuring that we coordinate matters with the province in terms of delivering disaster assistance.

With respect to some of the specifics, Mr. Baker can deal with that.

[William V. Baker]

Briefly, Mr. Chair, I think it's important to note that when we're talking about the budget that's allocated for the disaster financial assistance arrangements, it's essentially a notional amount. It's established at roughly $100 million every year. It is demand driven. If we receive more demand in a given year because of flooding, hurricanes, whatever, then we would pursue additional funding through supplementary estimates.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I would suggest that many Canadians, if not most or all Canadians, would agree that criminals need to be punished, and they need to serve the time they have been sentenced to. But another piece to that is to try to prevent these people from going down the way of crime in the beginning.

I wonder if the minister would be able to answer on the level of funding that has been committed to the youth gang prevention fund for this year, 2011-12. I think it is important that we try to reach out to these youth before they enter into a life of crime.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Thank you very much. Mr. Chair.

In answer to the member's question, I was very pleased to see that the Prime Minister announced very recently, in Vancouver, an extension of the youth anti-gang initiative and the money being put forward in that respect. At the same time, I was able to be in Saskatchewan to announce a number of significant community-based projects, where there are individuals who are working with young people to keep them out of gangs.

It's quite interesting that we have made a record number of commitments in terms of funding for our national crime prevention program. The amount of expenditures in respect of these programs that are focused on keeping young people out of gangs and out of a criminal lifestyle amounted to a commitment of $40 million in the past fiscal year. As I said, this is a record amount of money being spent on this type of initiative.

I'm very pleased to see that type of initiative continue, and I'm pleased to see that the Prime Minister announced the extension of the program in Vancouver. I trust that members will support the budget that brings in this type of funding to help youth reject a life of crime.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Lobb, you still have two minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thanks again.

Another question I have is regarding the first nations policing program. I wonder if the minister can tell Canadians a little more about the program and the amount of funds that have been allocated to it for this fiscal year.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

The first nations policing program is a very important part of improving public safety in first nations and Inuit communities. It has been going on for close to 20 years. In fact, funding of approximately $17 million for the first nations policing program will sunset on March 31, 2011; therefore the public safety main estimates will reflect a return to ongoing funding.

The short-term funding was intended to provide for the sustainability of policing agreements under the first nations policing program and to conduct a comprehensive review of the program. Budget 2011 puts forward $30 million in additional funding so we can keep police officers on the street, perhaps in reference to the question put by Mr. Davies about the commitment of our government to have policing officers on the street. It's very important. Unfortunately, it appears that the opposition is determined to end the budget, and that funding will not be in place when funding lapses on March 31.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

For closing comments, Mr. Lobb, you have 30 seconds.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

There may be time for a quick question regarding CSIS.

Can you tell us how the funding has changed from year to year, as well as the effectiveness of those expenditures?

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Perhaps Ms. Danagher can respond to that very quickly.

[Laura Danagher, Deputy Director, Administration, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)]

Chair, thank you very much.

Our funding increase over 2010-11 is very marginal. It has gone up by about $2.5 million. A lot of that has to do with the program integrity funding we got in Budget 2010 for some specific projects that the service will be putting in place. I can't really talk about the details because of the security issues around them, unfortunately. We also got some funding in 2007 through the budget, again to deal with some of the resource integrity issues the service was facing.

Our budget since 2000 has increased by about 134%, largely due to the events of September 11, 2001. We also got some money for a phase III tower at our Ogilvie Road campus, which will be near completion in April.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move to the second round.

Madam Mendes.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask you, if at all possible, to confirm with the Minister of Public Safety that he did say in the House of Commons that he was aware of the numbers and that he knew all the costs relating to the programs and bills he tabled in the House. I am asking this because it was only after bills had been tabled and approved that we learned he did not have all the information and would not be able to give it to us.

I would like the minister to explain this inconsistency. On the one hand, he claims to know all the figures but is unable to give them to us and, on the other hand, once the bill has been passed, he states that he is in fact not really sure about the figures.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thanks very much, Madam Mendes.

Mr. Minister.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

To the extent that those numbers are available, I'm familiar with them. If there are any specific numbers that the member feels she doesn't have, she can put that question to you, Mr. Chair, and the department officials can provide that information.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Chair, I remind the Minister that this request related to Bill C-59 and that we still do not know. For 55% of the bills that have been tabled, we do not have the information we need to do a proper study.

Also, I would like to have some explanation of the budget cuts of the external review committee of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Is this with regard to the RCMP and the public complaints?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Their budget is cut by about 19%. I would like someone to explain why the budget of something that seems to be critically important to anyone interested in public safety is being cut.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

I'm referring to the budget.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

I'm not familiar with those cuts, and I'll have the RCMP---

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madam Mendes, is it a specific line item, or is it the overall budget that you're...?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

No, I'll say it in English. For the Royal Canadian Mounted Police external review committee, there's an 18.9% cut in the budget, and it's a line budget.