Public Safety Committee on March 21st, 2013

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

You talked about the pilot projects and, in particular, remote traffic. Are there any particular numbers of people coming across the border that you would use some of this new technology for? I know you did indicate lower levels. Where are you going with this? Are there a number of border crossings currently being looked at or potentially being used for this kind of service?

[Malcolm Brown]

The action plan commits both countries to four pilots, two on each side of the border. The government is still considering where those might be. The mix is lower volumes. You're not going to see this kind of thing done at a high-volume port.

I think the kinds of areas you'd be looking at are where the objective is to test different approaches, to look at models that get the risking right, to make sure we're not creating an environment where the border is less safe. We want to make sure we're doing it in a place where the volumes of traffic would sustain it, where it's not an inconvenience to the travelling public or to the commercial operations, and where it's actually facilitating and improving service.

I'm being careful not to tell you exactly what the criteria are because I think the government hasn't yet confirmed exactly how they want to proceed. But it would be in areas where there's interest in improving service. We're constantly balancing service levels in places where you have very little traffic. I think the government is cognizant of the impact of .... There have been, in the past, some closures of ports on both sides of the border and they're never easy. So I think there's a real attraction on the part of the government and the minister to explore ways in which we can use technology to help improve service.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

And you did, I believe, mention that it would also potentially increase the hours of operation on some of these?

[Malcolm Brown]

That's certainly in the.... One of the advantages of technology is that it doesn't have to sleep. We can run things 24 hours. Certainly within the range of issues that we're going to assess these projects is....

You know, it's probably not helping us if we reduce service and do it remotely—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

That's your five minutes, Mr. Payne.

Mr. Payne didn't get to the Wild Horse crossing down there in his riding. He usually does have an opportunity to put a plug in for longer hours there. I know he wanted to do that, but the time wasn't available for it.

I would also put that plug in, by the way, because my wife spent two and a half hours at Coutts yesterday, waiting to come back up. But that's just an aside.

Mr. Gill, it's your turn.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank our witnesses for being here with us today.

I represent a riding just outside of Toronto, in Brampton. It's called Brampton—Springdale. We have a very large transportation hub and also some very large manufacturing facilities, including the Chrysler plant and others. Our city depends a lot on how effectively the border crossing is working.

My question is obviously for you, Mr. Brown. I know that the minister mentioned there's been a 26% increase to front-line personnel and so forth. In terms of the border crossing, especially commercial trade, trucking and so on, what sort of impact has that had on mainly the trucking industry, and what are some of the improvements that have been made over the years?

Especially soon after the 9/11 incident, I know there were significant delays at the border crossing at the time. I wasn't elected then. I was working in the manufacturing sector, and we experienced some of those delays first-hand. It had a huge impact on our businesses and in businesses in general, obviously. As we know, the U.S. is our largest trading partner.

I'm wondering if you can shed some light on some of those areas.

[Malcolm Brown]

The short answer—since I went on too long in a previous answer—is that our volumes are increasing. You were asking specifically in the context of the impact of the deficit reduction action plan. Volumes are increasing and we're actually seeing wait times either staying the same or improving slightly.

I think the agency would argue that's a direct result of the fact that we made every effort to protect front-line service delivery. That is true for both the travellers, the individuals in personal vehicles crossing the border, and the commercial side. There are, from time to time, issues in particularly busy ports of entry, but we do everything we can to manage them quickly.

Part of that has been, I think, as a result of a series of things: the peak period strategy that I talked about before, and also infrastructure investments that the government has made in Prescott, Queenston, and a variety of ports of entry over the last couple of years, where there have been significant improvements.

As well, frankly, provincial governments have facilitated the road networks into ports of entry. You're not getting the lineups going southbound, and it's easier to get to the U.S. port of entry, that kind of thing.

So there's been a significant range of activity to ensure that traffic is flowing as smoothly as possible.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I think there have been other initiatives as well that have been well received—for example, where there are FAST cards for truck drivers, and also where companies are now able to submit a lot of the paperwork before the truck arrives at the border and can receive initial clearance, or, if there are any problems, CB officers can evaluate the shipment or the truck that's approaching the border well in advance.

Have some of these initiatives—obviously, I assume—helped?

[Malcolm Brown]

I'll speak to one example, eManifest, which is essentially moving from a paper-based process. It's a multi-year project. We're seeking funds in the mains this year for eManifest. As an example, instead of the paperwork taking place at the border, it's done electronically. It's done in advance. Essentially clearance decisions and the screening are done by officers in a back-office environment, not at the border. As a truck arrives, that's pulled up in front of the officer, and all the risking has been done. If it's a high risk or there's a question, that truck is pulled aside. Certainly our stakeholders, big shippers, both manufacturers and retailers, in the regular meetings we have with them are very complimentary about this kind of shift to moving the work away from the border and focusing at the border on the high-risk issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gill and Mr. Brown.

We'll move back to Mr. Garrison, please, for five minutes.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Thank you very much.

I want to start with what I hope maybe is a quick question to the deputy minister on the question of pardons.

I know I've had discussions with members of Parliament in all parties about significant delays in the pardon process. These are people who've served their sentences, done their waiting time, are fully eligible for a pardon, and now they're waiting one to two years. It often prevents them from getting jobs, and it has severe impacts on families. Is there money in this budget to address these severe delays in getting pardons to those who are trying to reintegrate themselves?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Garrison.

Mr. Cenaiko, of the Parole Board, may be able to answer that as well.

[Harvey Cenaiko, Chairperson, National Parole Board]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Garrison, there are approximately 21,500 pardon applications currently in our backlog. Of course, you're all aware that the legislative changes over the last few years have increased the fee from $50 to $150, and the user fee to $631, under the User Fees Act, which is the true cost of administering a pardon for an applicant.

The board has hired and trained temporary staff, in determinate positions, to deal with this backlog. The applications have now been screened up to the eligibility stage, and we are proceeding to the inquiry stage for backlogged applications, processing them in the month in which they were accepted so one is not getting preferential treatment over another.

We are currently processing applications that were accepted in March 2011 for summary offences, and as well indictable offences going back into 2010. My goal is to ensure that the backlog is completed within the next two years, by 2014-15. We're looking at about 1,000 decisions per month on each one of those—an investigative background on it, as well as the screening as per the new legislation, and the review of those pardons as per the new legislation and regulations in relation to each of those applications.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Thank you for that answer, but I think it's quite shocking that we have such a large backlog and we're not going to be able to clear it for such a long time. These people will be waiting a very long time for the pardons for which they're eligible, and for that reintegration. So we remain concerned about that timeframe.

With limited time, I want to move to Mr. Head. I asked the minister yesterday about Ashley Smith, and I'm going to ask you again because the minister talked about the inquest. What we've been emphasizing is that the correctional investigator made recommendations in June 2008 on how to deal with prisoners with mental health issues and the changes that were needed. You issued directive 843 in July 2011. What we've been asking is this. Has there been a report on the full implementation of that directive? The correctional investigator, as recently as November 2012, said he had seen no report of the implementation and that he had doubts that those recommendations had been fully implemented.

[Don Head]

We do not have a specific report per se that we've issued, but we monitor all the changes in policy from different perspectives. We have what we call management control frameworks that require institutions and their community parole offices to report on their implementation, in a self-reporting of the implementation of those policy issues.

We also have an update that we do in regard to the actions we committed to, in relation not only to his report but to some of our own internal reports. We have an update that shows there is progress being made in all the areas.

The investment we've received over the last five years has helped us to implement many of the initiatives, including the initial screening of all offenders coming into the federal system, our computerized offender mental health information screening system, and the implementation of the interdisciplinary management teams in the institutions to deal with mental health cases. The money also has allowed us to seek outside assistance on some of the more complex cases, to bring in professionals not only to look at the way we're currently managing certain cases, the more complex cases, but to make additional suggestions as to areas that we could be exploring. We have—

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Your answer is that there's progress, but it has not been fully implemented yet, a year and a half later.

[Don Head]

Well, we have progress in all fronts. In terms of the commissioner's directive itself, the policy you're talking about, yes, we have full implementation of the policy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Garrison.

We'll move to Ms. Bergen, please, for five minutes.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

There's a couple of things I want to touch on really quickly, because of the work we have done on cybersecurity. I can reassure Monsieur Guimont and say that indeed there was no cybersecurity plan prior to our government's implementing it. When Mr. Scarpaleggia drills anybody on how much money is being spent on cybersecurity, we do know that under the Liberals zero dollars were going towards cybersecurity, because they didn't have a plan.

I also want to direct something to Commissioner Paulson. Mr. Rousseau was asking about funding going towards the independent complaints commission. Under Bill C-42, which I know you strongly support, and no thanks to the NDP, but thanks to the Liberals, who did support it, we were able to pass that.... Bill C-42 is actually at the Senate right now. There's $5 million alone that will go towards this complaints commission, this body, as well as an additional $10 million to implement Bill C-42. Is that correct? Is it something that will be helpful?

[Commr Bob Paulson]

That's my understanding: that there is funding for the new complaints commission. I think it will be helpful.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Guimont, would you clarify?

[François Guimont]

Yes, thank you.

For the commissioner, as he explained, there is an arm's-length relationship with the new complaints commission. That's why he's answering this way.

The answer is yes: there are going to be new resources. The full amount will be about $10.4 million. That implies an increment of about $2 million over the current base, so there will be a bump up in view of the further responsibilities that will be tied to the commission. I just want to confirm that.

Thank you for confirming...and I feel a bit awkward here, but my staff did also give me a note saying that the cyber-strategy was a first for Canada. I just want to also be on the record as confirming that. Thank you.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Thank you.

Again, just to clarify, that funding you referred to is under Bill C-42, which the NDP voted against.

[François Guimont]

This is for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission of the RCMP.