Evidence of meeting #3 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 work.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Gina Wilson  Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Kathy Thompson  Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Monik Beauregard  Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cyber Security Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Craig Oldham  Director General, Government Operations Centre, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Nada Semaan  Executive Vice-President, Canada Border Services Agency
Caroline Xavier  Vice-President, Operations Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
Martin Bolduc  Vice-President, Programs Branch, Canada Border Services Agency

11:30 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to begin by thanking our witnesses for taking the time out of their busy schedules to be with us today and make a presentation.

If I may, Mr. Chair, I'd like to say hello to the member whose riding is next to mine, Mr. Picard, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. We are seeing that the Liberal government does things the same way that the Conservatives did, albeit a little more subtly. Positions have changed slightly from what they were during the previous four years.

On a more serious note, I'd like to ask you a question, if you don't mind.

Quebec currently has a human trafficking crisis on its hands, especially in Laval. The House of Commons unanimously passed a bill addressing the issue, and now we are just waiting for the order in council.

I would like you to tell me, first of all, whether that bill will be helpful to you and, second of all, whether it is on your recommendation that the minister is taking his time, let's say.

11:30 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

I would suggest that no one has taken their time. In fact, our minister is quite seized with this particular bill at the moment.

Kathy, is there anything further to add? I think we'll be contemplating moving forward with that shortly.

11:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Kathy Thompson

Thank you.

In 2012, the government implemented a national strategy, an action plan to combat human trafficking. Since then, we have had a four-pronged strategy that includes prevention, protection, and partnerships. We are working closely on the file with a number of federal agencies and departments, such as the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP. We are also working to make progress on other components of the action plan, on behalf of the minister.

11:30 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to clarify my question, since I don't have a lot of time.

I am asking specifically about the passage of Ms. Mourani's bill. My understanding was that a deadline had been established for adopting the measures in the bill. It has received royal assent; the only thing missing is the order in council.

Is there a deadline for that? Have you worked with the minister on bringing the measures into force?

11:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Kathy Thompson

I can assure you that we are working on the action plan and considering a variety of projects. But I can't give you any specifics on time frames. I would have to get back to you with that information.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

That's great. Thank you kindly.

On the same line of thought, I suppose, there was a question posed by my colleague Mr. Garrison yesterday about the police recruitment fund and the fact that—with all due respect to my colleagues on this side of the table—there were some cuts in the department. Despite a lot of the bluster around that, is this something that the budget is going to look at? Is it something that would help in communities such as Surrey, for example, where we've seen an issue?

I know that the minister has acted, but if we were to put more money in the police recruitment fund, would it be of help to communities like that?

11:35 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

It would probably be appropriate to talk about that with the RCMP when they appear before this committee, but certainly as officials we're always looking at continuous improvement of our processes, our programs, and so on, and we make proposals thereon internally. As to whether it's a consideration that would be part of the budget deliberations, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

Thank you very much.

Seeing as I'm short on time, I'm going to move on to another topic.

You touched on the efforts to combat violent extremism, citing Ban Ki-moon's visits to a number of centres in Montreal. That gives us some hope that you plan to follow Montreal's example. Local authorities have a certain degree of expertise, which should not be overlooked. The intention seems to be to work with those people.

11:35 a.m.

Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cyber Security Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Monik Beauregard

Absolutely.

I told you earlier about the creation of an office to combat radicalization. We plan to develop a national counter-radicalization strategy.

I said that we already have a counterterrorism strategy, but all it does is mention countering radicalization. In other words, combatting radicalization isn't the focus of the strategy.

And now, a few years later, we are realizing what a significant and incredibly complex issue it really is, one that must be considered through a variety of lenses. We are going to get to work on a national strategy and we are going to work with the provinces, territories, and municipalities, as well as all the stakeholders with expertise in that field.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

That's great.

Thank you very much.

There's another question I have. We've heard a lot—unfortunately, more in the media than anywhere else—about this new committee that's going to come forward to deal with some of the fallout of Bill C-51 and such. Is there anything you're able to say about that today to perhaps give us an idea of where that process is at?

Despite our pleas in the opposition to be a part of that process, as should be the case, we're hearing more about it in the media, as I said, than we are through official channels.

11:35 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

We're working very closely with Minister Goodale to put together a proposal to conduct some national security consultations, which would be the first ever for Public Safety Canada, to move forward with this. As part of that, certainly, the committee will be contemplated.

If Monik doesn't have anything to add, that's it for now.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

Excellent.

That's it for my questions.

Again, I apologize if I was abrupt. We never know if we're going to run out of time.

Thank you again for doing the work you do and taking the time to be with us today.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Thank you.

We'll continue with Mr. Mendicino.

11:35 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

Thank you.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Matthew Dubé NDP Beloeil—Chambly, QC

That's all for now, Mr. Chair.

11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to begin by echoing a lot of the thanks that have been provided to you, Ms. Wilson, and to the rest of your colleagues and the panel. I think we all appreciate that in most regards you are both the first and the last line of defence for Canada, and we thank you for your efforts every day.

I'd like to ask you a general question about where we are with Canada's cybersecurity strategy. Canadians' personal and professional lives have gone digital. We use the Internet, we use email, and we use texting. Some of our friends in the press gallery like to use Twitter. I see Mr. Akin nodding his head back there. We do business, shopping, research, and education online.

Business uses cyberspace not only for transactional purposes, but also for research and development. They use it to protect their patents. Government needs to use cyberspace and the digital space for the entire array of services it provides Canadians and also for its own internal governance. Whether it's in immigration, health, public safety, or national security, digital makes all this possible.

There are a lot of advantages to that. On a very practical level, we have people who can telework. It allows us to shrink distances between point A and point B. It allows us to stay connected. But there are also some things we have to be mindful of. The fact that we are now so invested in cyberspace can make us vulnerable. Whether it's with respect to criminal fraudsters.... For example, I recently met with a fairly well-known business called “Canada Goose”. Some of you may wear their products, especially with the arctic freeze and the record snowfall we recently had. They're concerned about fraud and protecting their brand.

Whether we're concerned about foreign radical elements recruiting, as we've heard about, or whether we're concerned about hackers, about non-state entities like WikiLeaks, which are constantly trying to prod and test our systems and which sometimes succeed, regrettably, there are risks everywhere. My question is, where are we at with Canada's cyber-strategy, and what are your top two concerns in terms of our risk assessment?

11:40 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

Thank you very much for that.

Cybersecurity is definitely one of those issues that has risen in prominence over the years, and certainly for Public Safety that's the case. We have a national and cybersecurity branch, which is led by Monik Beauregard, who seems to be very popular today.

We also have the cyber-strategy that I mentioned in my remarks, and we're about to launch a cyber review. We also believe that critical infrastructure is a key risk for us in Canada and is certainly something that the government plans to move forward with—

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Could I interrupt very briefly? On your cyber review—and this is imminent—can you identify the top two specific priorities that you're collectively mindful of as you start to zoom in on areas of concern?

11:40 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

I'll turn it over to Monik for her to add anything further on the work she's doing in preparing for the review.

11:40 a.m.

Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cyber Security Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Monik Beauregard

Okay, in seven minutes, because we could spend a few days on this one.... We haven't officially launched the review of the existing measures that are in place to protect Canadians and critical infrastructure from cyber-threats, but we are again working with our colleagues to propose various approaches and on how to scope the review right now. Obviously, it is our intent to conduct a review that's going to be credible and comprehensive and that reaches out to all stakeholders across Canada and also to our international partners.

Minister Goodale has already had conversations on cyber-threats and what keeps people awake at night—

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

What does keep people awake at night? Let me try to further zoom you in, because in the little time remaining there are two areas I'd like to hear about.

Number one is the financial sector and banking.

Number two is in regard to expressions that potentially incite hatred and inflammatory language with the use of social media. Are there partnerships being formed with Facebook, Twitter, and those types of social media providers to try to monitor that kind of language?

11:40 a.m.

Associate Deputy Minister, Public Safety Canada, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Gina Wilson

This particular issue is so broad and so significant that we actually have two parts of the department that work on this. One is working from the terrorism aspect, cybersecurity, particularly the international piece, in terms of working with groups like CSEC, and National Defence, and so on. We also have the countering crime aspect, which is a key part of the work going ahead.

I mentioned critical infrastructure as a priority at this point in time in terms of cybersecurity, but I would ask Kathy to speak to some of the elements around the countering crime perspective.

11:40 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Kathy Thompson

As Monik said, this is an area we could take a lot of time to talk about, and I don't want to take all of your time. You asked for one or two key issues that are keeping us up at night.

If we look at the crime rate, it peaked in 1991, but really overall the crime rate has been going down over the last two decades. The violent crime rate, for the last eight years, has been going down.

However, there are some exceptions. One of those exceptions is child sexual exploitation over the Internet. That is going up exponentially, year over year. We are working very closely with our colleagues in the RCMP, who have a centre dedicated to this. Other partners we have, like CCCP, for example, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which is one of our partners, could tell you a little bit about the work we're doing. That is one area that is keeping us awake. We're working very actively on that. We're partnering, not just in Canada but internationally. We're part of a number of global alliances, and we protect summits on that. That's one.

Also, very quickly, there is organized crime. The Internet, as you said, is great. That's the way we work. We socialize now, but organized crime has also moved into that space. Identity theft is a big issue and so is copyright; all of those crimes have actually gone up.

While the crime rate is going down and the violent crime rate is going down, there are some crimes that are going up, in part due to the Internet.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Thank you, Mr. Mendicino. That's it.

Mr. Miller.

February 18th, 2016 / 11:45 a.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you for being here.

I want to switch to refugee screening. Just going back a little bit to last late October or early November, when Minister Goodale announced they were going to increase the number of refugees coming in by 25,000, I think everyone in the country pretty well, including the minister—although he probably wouldn't admit it—knew that really wasn't possible unless some things were done differently. There must have been a collective shudder in the department that day. Was there, when that came out? Would that be a fair assessment or assumption? Yes or no?