Good morning, Madam Chair, and honourable members of this committee. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear here before you today on this important study.
My name is Angela Arnet Connidis. I am the director general of crime prevention in the corrections and criminal justice directorate at Public Safety Canada.
I'm abridging the notes that you received, so I apologize if this confuses you or the translators.
Today I'm going to speak to you about four key initiatives funded by Public Safety Canada that work to support indigenous communities to prevent crime, to create safe environments, and to improve the reintegration outcomes of indigenous offenders.
The first initiative is Public Safety Canada's aboriginal community safety planning initiative, which we usually refer to as community safety planning. This initiative was announced as part of the 2015 government action plan to address family violence and violent crimes against aboriginal women and girls. Community safety planning is focused on building a community's capacity to create a safe community itself by providing whatever support the community needs to develop and implement a community safety plan.
In this grassroots approach, our officials reach out to indigenous communities, and we offer to act as a resource and a support for a core group of community members who will consult within their community and with their leadership over the course of this process. It's crucially important that the community itself want this help.
This process results in a community safety plan that is truly built by the community. It is customized with activities that examine historical factors and draw from the unique circumstances of the community, and it lays out a pathway to a safer and healthier community that once more is tailored for that community.
Community safety plans have often demonstrated a commitment to addressing family violence and violent crimes against indigenous women and girls. To date, Public Safety has engaged with over 100 communities, 29 of which have completed their plans and are in various stages of implementation. As well, we are in the midst of a pilot project with as many as 10 communities that have completed plans, and in which we are engaging other federal departments such as Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Indigenous Services, Status of Women, and Health Canada, as well as ministries and provincial governments that have a role to play in implementing components of community safety plans. From these partners' perspectives, community safety plans help to more effectively target their funding, and ensure that they are supporting projects the communities have identified as priorities.
The seasoned initiative I want to talk about is the national crime prevention strategy. The delivery of crime prevention programs through the strategy is another way we are responsive to the vulnerability of indigenous women and girls to violence and victimization. The department's programs and initiatives include a focus on high-risk children and youth who present multiple risk factors for later delinquency, including having been exposed to or victims of violence in the family. In addition, the department supports interventions that are aimed at preventing reoffending among high-risk chronic offenders in communities, including those who have a known history of spousal or child abuse.
The strategy has a targeted northern and aboriginal crime prevention fund that supports culturally sensitive crime prevention practices to reduce offending among at-risk children and youth both on and off reserve and in the north. The fund also supports the dissemination of knowledge and the development of crime prevention tools and resources for northern and aboriginal communities. Of the crime prevention projects the department has supported since 2012, 46% have involved indigenous people or communities.
The third initiative I'm going to talk about is our first nations policing program. Budget 2017 committed $102 million over five years staring in 2018-19 for policing in indigenous communities. The first nations policing program supports policing services that are professional, dedicated, and responsive to the first nation and Inuit communities they serve. First nations policing services contribute to the improvement of social order, public security, and personal safety in first nations and Inuit communities, including, of course, the safety of women, children, and other vulnerable groups.
The fourth initiative I'm going to refer to is the indigenous community corrections initiative. Budget 2017 provided Public Safety with $10 million over five years in contribution funding to support training and capacity building within indigenous communities, and to help them implement community-based projects that will assist in the reintegration of indigenous offenders and provide alternatives to incarceration. The specific and unique needs of female indigenous offenders, as well as balanced gender representation, will be taken into account when assessing initiatives to receive project funding.
Eligible recipients include indigenous not-for-profit organizations and indigenous governments and/or municipal governments, working in collaboration with indigenous organizations or communities, indigenous communities themselves, and Canadian universities and colleges. The call for proposals recently closed, and we are now in the process of reviewing the submissions.
As I stated earlier this year to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security which is also studying indigenous corrections, to reduce the overrepresentation of indigenous people in federal custody, we need to focus on the social history and the risk factors present in people's lives that contribute to people getting involved in the criminal justice system. Solutions need to be developed and delivered in collaboration with indigenous people, communities, and organizations. This is true regardless of gender, but is especially relevant when considering the incarceration rates and lived experiences of indigenous women.
Thank you once again for the opportunity to address you, and I welcome any questions you may have.