Evidence of meeting #164 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Corrections and Criminal Justice Unit, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
We were not involved in the drafting.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Okay, that's one part of the question.
Did you review this prior to submission?
5:05 p.m.
Director, Corrections and Criminal Justice Unit, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I did not review this amendment.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Director, Corrections and Criminal Justice Unit, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I can't speak for others, sir.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
It's been pretty clear from the beginning what I've been trying to do. I'm trying to run a number of amendments that are all connected to try to make sure we can allow for people to access record suspension for simple cannabis possession, even though they might have an outstanding fine for that simple cannabis possession. The issue we've run into is that fines aren't fully within the federal jurisdiction. We're trying to carve out that you can apply and still get your record suspension. However, the fine is still outstanding and you can be asked to pay for it.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
Thank you, Ms. Dabrusin.
Would anyone else like to add something?
Mr. Murdock, you have the floor.
5:05 p.m.
Director, Corrections and Criminal Justice Unit, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Thank you.
To go back to Mr. Motz's question as to whether others had reviewed it, I can say that, yes, others did review the amendment.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
Thank you.
Who opposes the amendment?
What do you think, Mr. Picard?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
I'll start with the opponents. I wanted to know whether the system was working.
Let's move on to the vote.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
(Clause 6 as amended agreed to on division)
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
We'll now move on to clause 6.1 and the CPC-5 amendment.
I must warn the Conservative Party that this amendment is inadmissible because it goes beyond the scope of the bill.
My Liberal colleagues will understand that I'm pleased to be saying this into the microphone today.
Do you want to discuss the amendment?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I'd just like to follow through. I understand that we're maybe overreaching and giving authority where we can't, but again, it's the following through of my earlier submission and the recommendation that we'll be putting forward at the end. We need to encourage our Parole Board to look at electronic means of recording this information to make it as simple as possible.
My research has shown that there are programs out there that meet the needs of multiple jurisdictions in the United States. All I am basically asking is that we allow the Parole Board to proactively hire a firm or look at design software to help eliminate the problem we have right now and make it more electronically friendly and quicker. That was the idea behind that, but I realize there's a cost to that and we do not have that jurisdiction.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
Thank you, Mr. Eglinski.
(Clause 7)
We'll move on to clause 7.
Since there's no amendment, we'll proceed with the vote.
(Clause 7 agreed to on division)
(Clause 8)
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
We'll look at the LIB-6 amendment.
Ms. Dabrusin, you have the floor.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
The fun continues on this one again.
It's just allowing for the collection of the fines by the provinces. That's what this aims to do in Liberal-6. It's just completing it. There were consequential amendments that had to fit in with the original amendments that I made, and this is part of that package.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
Thank you, Ms. Dabrusin.
Since there are no other comments, we'll proceed with the vote.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
We'll move on to the CPC-6 amendment.
Mr. Motz, you have the floor.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Thank you, Chair.
This minor amendment is to address the question that neither the officials nor the minister was able to answer definitively. It's provided after the fact to the House and to the people of Canada.
When we inquired of him how many people would benefit from this act or how much it would cost, we were provided with basically the officials' best guess. Some academics estimate up to half a million people could use this record suspension process; however, officials estimated that 250,000 are eligible, with about 10,000 who might make use of it. If more than 4% of those who are eligible do make use of this process, the Parole Board will be underfunded based on the numbers that were provided.
The idea of the amendment is to ensure that the costs of free record suspensions for marijuana possession are not passed down to those applying for other record suspensions.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Pierre Paul-Hus
Thank you, Mr. Motz.
Will there be a discussion?
It's too easy with me.
