Yes, and who's involved with it.
In communities where, in particular, to go back to Mr. Freeland's point, the elders have been consulted and have been really part of driving the initiatives within communities, whether it's justice initiatives, early childhood initiatives, or dry community initiatives, in my experience those are the ones that have been most effective.
Earlier this year I was in New Zealand meeting with some folks. One of the things that a number of Maori communities have done, which I know that some of the indigenous communities are looking at here, is taking resources that have previously been used for criminal justice issues and redirecting them to things such as early childhood education support services. They're seeing a huge difference in the rates of young people who are engaged, or more to the point, not engaged in criminal justice and are creating hope.
That was the same message we heard from young people in this country from up north when Senator Sinclair, Senator Boniface, and I met with some young people a few weeks ago. They want those kinds of investments made with their elders and with their communities for them to be able to have greater opportunities.
Mr. Dubé raised a question earlier about young people in the system. One of the areas that you need to be aware of and part of the reason we have a jettisoning of young people into the adult system is that we changed the youth system back in 1984 and actually stopped allowing young people to lose their records when they finish their time as youth. That might sound like a minor thing to some people or it might sound like a big thing, but it was a major issue because many young people, as we know, age out in terms of behaviour. Young people would be able to start as a first time.... They would get a new option. Most of those young people, as you would know from your former career, then would not continue on.
Therefore, we've also created systems that actually provide almost trajectories into the adult criminal justice system, and that's part of it. Those who already start with the greatest degree of marginalization are more likely to end up in the system as well.