Evidence of meeting #10 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was issues.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Before we proceed, I have a question for you, Madam Chair.
A number of times today, we've asked for information from some witnesses and they replied that they'd send the information later. I'd like to report on these issues to the colleague I'm replacing on this committee.
Can you let me know how this information is obtained? How is this information passed on to the committee?
Conservative
The Clerk
Madam Chair, I'm the one who communicates with parliamentary agents and the witnesses or their representative to pass along requests and get answers to questions, which are then sent to the committee members.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
The information will then be sent to the committee members. Thank you.
Ms. Connidis, a few committee members today mentioned gaps, and I'd like to come back to that topic.
The mandate letter of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness states that your department must, and I quote, “Work with the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs to address gaps in services to Indigenous Peoples and those with mental illness throughout the criminal justice system.”
To conclude our meeting, I'd like you to talk about the main gaps your department has noted with respect to violence against girls and young women.
Director General, Crime Prevention, Corrections and Criminal Justice Directorate, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
The Department of Justice and the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs are our partners. That is because you have gaps in the justice system. Reporting crimes is a gap. When they are engaged in the justice system, it's knowing how to move through the courts and what their rights are. Once you get into the corrections system, it's about the types of services that are available to reintegrate them, especially in terms of indigenous services. Do you have culturally appropriate services to help them reintegrate, to understand what their risks are, and to overcome them?
We know there's a lot that happens before someone becomes engaged in the justice system, and that's where our Indigenous and Northern Affairs partners come into play. They run a lot of the programs that improve the communities, so that's the education in the community, the health, the housing infrastructure, which are very important to preventing crime. As I mentioned earlier, there is also the community safety planning, which involves working very closely with the communities to help them.
We hadn't talked about the first nations policing program, but that's another program we have at Public Safety. We have agreements with the provinces, territories, and the communities to fund first nations policing on the reserves.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu
That's excellent.
That's the end of our time. I want to say thank you very much to our witnesses. You did an excellent job. You're very knowledgeable. We appreciate the work that you're doing to try to eradicate violence against women. We encourage you to continue. If there is information that's been requested, would you follow up with the clerk? If there is other information that you think would be of benefit to the committee, we would love to receive it.
Thank you, again.
This meeting is adjourned.