Evidence of meeting #43 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rcmp.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chairperson, Parole Board of Canada
For the backlog we aren't, because we're not governed by the legislation regarding the pardon backlog, which were the old cases prior to the change in legislation in 2012.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
I know my office and several other offices have had queries from people who say they've been waiting two to three years since their application was approved. Would that be possible?
Chairperson, Parole Board of Canada
The vast majority of the files we've had have been for summary convictions, for things like impaired driving, thefts, and drug offences.
The indictable offences obviously include things that are much more serious: major frauds, serious assaults, sexual assaults, and even.... Some of those wouldn't even be considered under the new legislation. Some of those individuals who have pardon applications don't want a record suspension because they will not qualify under the new legislation since some of them have more than three federal offences. Under the new legislation they will not qualify for a record suspension, so they'll stay in the pardon hopper, so to speak, until we get to them. But we will process them with the resources we have.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
One minute—that presents a little bit of a problem.
I want to turn to CBSA. In 2012 cuts announced for CBSA amounted to a plan of $143 million, and the estimates say you've lapsed $194 million. Those are relatively significant numbers.
At the time there was a question about positions in the intelligence branch of CBSA. At the time, the union said that 100 positions—not people, but positions—were going to be eliminated from the intelligence branch, which obviously helps keep our borders safe, not something most people think of as a back-office function. Can you tell me whether those 100 positions were in fact eliminated?
Luc Portelance President, Canada Border Services Agency
Thank you.
Perhaps just to clarify the two separate issues, the lapse that you referred to is unrelated to the intelligence officers. That lapse was actually mostly reprofiled on projects, money we couldn't spend one year into another.
On your specific question with respect to intelligence officers, those positions were indeed reduced, as we had promised through the deficit reduction action plan. But if I can reassure the member, in assessing the intelligence needs of the CBSA, we took into consideration the existing number of intelligence officers versus the total complement of the CBSA. I spent 24 years working in intelligence for CSIS, and my assessment was that we had in fact too many resources in the intelligence function versus the complement of border services officers.
I can assure you that this was done very diligently with full comprehension of where we were reducing. From my perspective, I did not think that we were actually reducing the intelligence capacity of the CBSA, but cutting in areas that were not necessarily associated with collecting intelligence but were more analytical, and areas where I could actually gain that analysis from some of my partner agencies.
We made those cuts with full confidence that we wouldn't reduce our effectiveness.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities had asked for ongoing talks with the RCMP about the costs of contract policing and the ability of the RCMP to supply the personnel for those contracts. Are you in talks with the Canadian federation of municipalities on that question of costs and staffing of the contracts?
D/Commr Mike Cabana
I'm sorry, I'm not aware of any discussions ongoing currently with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
It's a pleasure. I'm a visitor at this committee, as is Mr. Portelance.
Mr. Portelance, you're probably aware I come from the riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, which includes Akwesasne, which might be somewhat familiar to you. I want to give you an opportunity to praise the good work that your people are doing down in my area. There are a lot of increases in seizures in recent times. I want to commend you. You don't have a very pleasant job, but I think you're doing well and you're increasing the seizures, so that's all good for my area.
I guess in doing that you work with the RCMP and with IBET, and that seems to be working extremely well. We've put more resources to that and I think the dividends are being realized. I know there was a $50-million seizure some time ago. Can you give us a list of some of the highlights of the recent seizures? I see them in the newspaper and they're pretty significant—right in my area. That has to be hurting the organized crime in that area. Can you perhaps just give us a thumbnail?
President, Canada Border Services Agency
Certainly. I don't have a list of the various seizures.
It is a very dynamic environment, as you suggest. But I would say that we are working closely and effectively with law enforcement partners. Obviously we have responsibility for the port of entry in Cornwall. That is one of the 20 busiest ports of entry in Canada, so just in terms of the flow of legitimate people and goods it's an important port of entry.
From an enforcement perspective, because we focus on the port of entry, we work very closely with not just the RCMP but with the OPP and Sûreté du Québec, as you know—better than I do perhaps. That area has a number of jurisdictions that come into play, including our U.S. partners, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, New York State Police, and so on. The collaboration is quite effective and the seizures actually sometimes occur away from the border. I suspect that there are probably more seizures away from our port of entry. But oftentimes it's because those activities are being pushed away from the port of entry.
I would also make the point that we do that work in collaboration as well with the community of Akwesasne, the Mohawk police, and the band council. It is a very dynamic environment. We have effective liaison with the community of Akwesasne and the Akwesasne police service. I think all in all for us we continue to balance both the travel of legitimate people and goods—because that remains important—with also focusing on seizures.
If I may, the last point I would make is that we've recently opened a new temporary facility in Cornwall, actually on our side of the island, which has provided for better flow of traffic and better opportunity for our officers to effect their duties in a professional manner.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
I'm very pleased and I'm getting great comments. I encourage you to keep up the good work.
I have a question for the deputy commissioner.
There were some reports yesterday in the integrity commissioner's report that some of the flights for the RCMP were a slight bit overweight. What is your reaction in response to that observation?
D/Commr Mike Cabana
Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the question.
I think we need to put a little bit of context around yesterday's reports. Very succinctly, I'll try to give you the context.
In November 2013, we were advised that the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner had initiated an investigation on our air services branch. On October 31 of this year, we were provided with a draft copy of the report. In the interim, we provided full collaboration to the integrity commissioner and his personnel, in order for them to be able to conduct the investigation.
I think what was lost in some of the reporting over the last few days is the fact that prior to the initiation of the investigation by the integrity commissioner in August 2013, the RCMP had approached Transport Canada with concerns, and had made a request for them to have a look at air services, including our office here in Ottawa, and for a review, a study of practices there. We worked with them to develop a plan.
By the time the draft report was received, we had already implemented the plan to address the issues, with the help of Transport Canada, .
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
You can't beat that. I commend you for that, and that's the kind of reaction we would expect. Keep up the good work.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
You still have a minute if you'd like, otherwise we'll go on to the next.
We will now go on to—yes, another minute?
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
John Carmichael Conservative Don Valley West, ON
I would like to address a question to Commissioner Head.
Commissioner, I asked the minister earlier about some of the estimates and the results that have been posted. With regard to returning the money, I have to assume that this is due to the projected growth of the prison population that simply has not materialized. I wonder if you could comment on that, if in fact that is the case.
Could you tell us what the prison population is today and what it was projected to be, sir?
Don Head Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
Thank you for the question.
As of today, the incarcerated population is 14,983 offenders in 43 penitentiaries. When we talk about those significant overestimates that were done back in early 2008 based on 2005 data, the estimates had put projections up to 18,000 inmates. Those have not materialized at all.
We gauge the increase in the population against March 2010 when significant legislative changes came in, such as the Safe Streets and Communities Act. Since that time, the prison population has increased by around a thousand. We were at around 14,027 back in March 2010, and we've been hovering around the 15,000 mark for literally the last year or so.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
Thank you very much, Mr. Head.
Mr. Easter, you have seven minutes, please.