Public Safety Committee on March 1st, 2018

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Can you describe to me the nature of the relationship, or sharing of the information, or what thresholds by which information would be shared between CSIS and the national security advisor?

[Charles Lowson]

Again, it depends on the nature of the information. Not everything is briefed up, obviously. It's at the discretion of our director, generally, as to what gets briefed up.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

I would also like to ask you a question about how information is shared with the Prime Minister's Office. Is any information shared directly between the Prime Minister's Office and CSIS or the RCMP?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

That will have to be the final question.

[D/Commr Daniel Dubeau]

From the RCMP's perspective, we would brief up to the national security advisor.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Calkins.

Ms. Dabrusin.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

We talked briefly before about first nations policing. I was really interested in what's in the supplementary estimates to improve indigenous services and services to our indigenous population.

I'll start with Corrections Canada. Is there anything in here—I was just going through your sheet here—that would deal with the allocation of funds for initiatives for programming for indigenous people in Corrections at the moment? We have been studying that. Is there anything that deals with tailoring programs to indigenous offenders?

[Anne Kelly]

I'd have to get the details of that.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Maybe I'll work it down the line. The RCMP spoke about first nations policing. Is there anything else in the supplementary estimates that deals with improving services for indigenous people and making them have more confidence in the services that you provide?

[D/Commr Daniel Dubeau]

That's line by line, so I will turn it over to my chief financial officer.

[Dennis Watters]

What I see is $1.8 million in the supplementary (C)s that are added upon, but as I was saying to the gentleman earlier, most of it is to the account for the market adjustment, an economic increase due to the pay raise to the members.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Why don't I try a slightly different tack? Maybe I'll go back to that in a second.

For the department, I saw that there is funding for the gender-based violence strategy. Can you tell me where that is at? What are the programs, and what's being developed under that line?

[Malcolm Brown]

The strategy is more broadly a horizontal initiative led by Status of Women Canada. If you want the full scope of the strategy, I encourage you to invite our colleague Gina Wilson to come and give you a full briefing.

In terms of the elements for public safety, there's $6 million over 5 years and $1.3 million per year. It's going to be used primarily to fund supports to address child sexual exploitation by increasing the capacity of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to help them manage reports of online child sexual exploitation that they receive. As well, this centre runs a well-known online crawler, Arachnid, I think it's called. This is a really important initiative that sort of scans the Internet and then informs service providers that they have illegal content. The service providers almost invariably take it down. It's a very cost-effective investment in beginning to tackle this issue.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

How would we be able to get more information about Arachnid?

[Malcolm Brown]

I would be happy, through the Chair, to share more background with the committee.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

That might be helpful for us to have a better sense.

I saw that in the budget there has also been money set aside for a hotline in respect of human trafficking. Would that be a next step on this gender-based violence strategy?

[Malcolm Brown]

As I say, the whole question around gender-based violence is part of a horizontal initiative.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Yes.

[Malcolm Brown]

Human trafficking affects men, women, and children, so there is a gender lens to it. I think our data shows that there is no question that it affects more women than men, and in some ways differently. The nature of the trafficking is different, depending on gender. This is, again, a relatively small targeted investment to support the tip line so that people can identify where people are at risk, and then stakeholders can take steps to provide support.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Ms. Dabrusin.

That concludes our questioning of the witnesses.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your contribution.

I want to go to the votes.

Do I have unanimous consent to vote on all items at once?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Shall the votes on supplementary estimates (C) pass?

CANADA BORDER SERVICES AGENCY

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$3,267,327

Vote 5c—Capital expenditures..........$18,042,576

(Votes 1c and 5c agreed to on division)

CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures, grants and contributions..........$105,897,636

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$2,649,033

Vote 5c—Grants and contributions..........$18,859,241

(Votes 1c and 5c agreed to on division)

ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$224,519,870

Vote 5c—Capital expenditures..........$22,715,260

Vote 10c—Grants and contributions..........$4,500,000

(Votes 1c, 5c, and 10c agreed to on division)

SECRETARIAT OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS

Vote 3c—Program expenditures..........$1

(Vote 3c agreed to on division)

The second vote is on interim estimates. Again, do I have unanimous consent to vote all at once?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We will vote on the interim estimates.

CANADA BORDER SERVICES AGENCY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$360,510,970

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$49,482,619

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$130,362,948

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

CIVILIAN REVIEW AND COMPLAINTS COMMISSION FOR THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$2,416,995

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$506,656,428

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$47,285,431

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$34,577,874

Vote 5—The grants listed in any of the Estimates for the fiscal year..........$251,966,227

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

OFFICE OF THE CORRECTIONAL INVESTIGATOR OF CANADA

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$1,032,456

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

PAROLE BOARD OF CANADA

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$10,614,402

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$843,868,844

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$72,383,989

Vote 10—The grants listed in any of the Estimates for the fiscal year..........$63,418,371

(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to on division)

ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE EXTERNAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$1,436,174

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

SECRETARIAT OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$823,687

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

SECURITY INTELLIGENCE REVIEW COMMITTEE

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$1,151,874

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

We would normally go in camera for the third item, but I don't really see the point, unless people really are keen on this. It is the request for the travel budget in order to be able to go on our study of indigenous people in the correctional system. This would be visits to Donnacona, Saskatoon, and Medicine Hat. You have it in front of you. It should be with your package of stuff.

Is there any debate?

I just want to make sure that everybody has seen it.