Public Safety Committee on March 21st, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Leef and Mr. Cenaiko.

We'll now move to a 10-minute round. You get two rounds back to back.

Madam Doré Lefebvre, go ahead.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would just like to quickly go back to something. Mr. Head, you talked about the report earlier. Could you tell me if it is possible to send a copy of the report to the clerk's office so that the members of the committee can take a look at it?

[Don Head]

The report on...?

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Double-bunking.

[Don Head]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

The internal report—

[Don Head]

Yes, that's correct.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

My questions will probably be for Mr. Guimont. Please point me to another witness if I am not speaking to the right person.

There was a temporary fund of $400 million over five years for the recruitment of police officers. The province of Quebec has used it. We were entitled to $92.5 million, if I am not mistaken. We have used it to set up joint forces to fight street gangs. Right from the first year, the results were tremendous, in terms of arrests, searches and the decline in the number of murders. The numbers accurately reflect the quality of those joint forces. They have done a good job thanks to the working capital of $400 million for the recruitment of police officers.

The government announced that this fund would expire and that it would not be renewed; it was a temporary fund. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but a fund of $30 million was announced for the fight against street gangs. So there is currently a shortfall for the province of Quebec and probably for the other provinces in terms of the fight against street gangs.

Does the proposed fund have an amount set aside for the fight against street gangs?

[François Guimont]

Thank you for your question.

I would like to quickly confirm something. I remember being asked this question when I previously appeared before the committee. As you know, the intent was to have a fund to recruit approximately 2,500 police officers across Canada. The initiative was really a huge success. I was taken aback by the numbers: 4,000 police officers were hired.

You are right, the fund enabled the provinces to decide where they wanted to invest on a per capita basis. The priorities on the ground vary across Canada, which makes sense.

As you said, the fund is not going to be renewed; it did what it was supposed to do. At the present time, we are not overlooking the need to continue to work together. Right now, we are continuing to work in a federal-provincial cooperation. Honestly, the Summit on the Economics of Policing that we held is along the same lines. We are trying to find ways to be able to work together better to keep costs under control and to have results that continue to be satisfactory on the ground, more than satisfactory, actually, in relation to the priorities of the various provinces.

As for your question on street gangs, I only have on thing to say. I am not sure if my colleague Commissioner Paulson can also help me on this. We have the national drug strategy, which falls under the Safe Streets and Communities Act that received royal assent in March 2012. Funds have been earmarked for that. However, I am not sure if that is specifically related to your question.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I am pretty much sure that it is related.

[François Guimont]

In that case, Mr. Paulson will answer.

[Commr Bob Paulson]

What I would say is that I'm aware of Montreal in particular and my good colleague Marc Parent and his work against the street gangs. It is a real challenge in some of our bigger communities.

I think it falls to every police leader in major cities or, in my case, in some major cities but on a provincial basis, to have their strategies going forward to fight organized crime. We have a number of national strategies that are tackling organized crime, prioritizing the threat, and coordinating focused enforcement efforts on these gangs and these organized crime groups so that when these individuals.... We've worked with Montreal. We've worked with Quebec. We've worked with Ontario. We have some very productive national investigations going on that are implementing these strategies.

But speaking to the funding issue that my colleague has already addressed, those are individual decisions, province by province.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

So, in terms of looking for funding for the fight against street gangs, we will really need to look at the issue province by province.

Do I still have a bit of time left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You have four and a half minutes.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Oh, I had 10 minutes in total?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes. It will be ten minutes. You can manage it how you want.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I will share my time with Mr. Rafferty, if that's okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Sure.

Mr. Rafferty, you have four minutes.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, everyone, for staying for an extra hour.

Commissioner Paulson, it's always nice to see you but I don't have a question for you. Sorry.

Mr. Head, I'm sure you've had a pretty close look at the correctional investigator report. In particular, one in four men in federal prisons is aboriginal and one in three women in federal prisons is aboriginal. It's certainly disproportionate to the population in Canada.

One of the recommendations in the report is better rehabilitation programs and better integrated programming with respect to first nations culture and so on. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that funding has either not increased or has been cut for that particular thing. Or are there plans to shift some moneys around in the future to make sure those particular recommendations dealing with that are dealt with properly?

[Don Head]

I'll just give you, again, some reference points in terms of increases in the budget as it relates to our response to aboriginal offenders: first nations, Métis, and Inuit offenders. In 2006-07 our budget specifically for aboriginal-based initiatives was $43 million. Going into this new fiscal year, 2013-14, our budget will be $62 million. So there has been an increase, and that increase has allowed us to expand programming specifically for aboriginal offenders.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

So we will see those programs expanding over the next year to deal with that particular recommendation.

[Don Head]

Yes.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Good. Thank you very much.

Mr. Brown, in my riding, which is along the United States' northern border, we see a lot of American boats on the river. We see a fair amount of personnel and very beefed-up border security on the American side in particular, drones patrolling the border and so on.

My question to you is this. Is Canada spending any money—I know you are probably cooperating with American authorities on these sorts of initiatives—to help with these programs the Americans are embarking upon?

[Malcolm Brown]

I'm going to defer to my colleague in the RCMP. Between ports of entry, the question of patrolling the border is the responsibility of the RCMP.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

So in fact, I do have a question for you, Commissioner Paulson.