Mr. Speaker, the minister has indicated that she intended to work closely with the provinces to help promote and expand the kinds of sentences that help youth fully appreciate the impact of their actions, accept responsibility in a meaningful way and come to terms with a need for change in their lives. These approaches provide youth with support to overcome criminal behaviour when traditional sources of support are unavailable. Equally important, they engage victims and the community in the administration of justice and thus provide greater confidence by responding to legitimate concerns that justice be seen to be delivered at the local level.
There are many models already in use across Canada. Some involve restitution, that is, youth paying back to the victim and the community for damage done. Other models involve victim-offender reconciliation programs, family group conferencing, community service orders or personal services to a victim. All of these emphasize and reinforce basic fundamental Canadian values such as respect for others, their property and their community.
The government wants to increase its efforts to prevent youth crime. Canadians want to provide their young people with any assistance they may need and help them stay away from crime.
To do so requires looking beyond the legislation and the criminal justice system at ways available to our society to deal with problems such as child poverty and child abuse, which are often an underlying cause of youth crime, and to help young people not to make the kind of choices that may lead them to engage in criminal behaviour.
The Government of Canada has agreed with provincial and territorial governments to pursue a joint child development strategy as part of the national action program for children.
Canadians realize that legislative changes are only one piece of the puzzle. Legislation alone will not stop young people from committing criminal acts and innocent people from being victimized. An efficient approach to deterring youth crime must reach beyond the criminal justice system and include crime prevention and a series of other programs and services to help children and young people.
This is the basic message conveyed by the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs in its report on the Young Offenders Act. The provinces and territories have been key partners in seeking new direction for the justice system as it applies to youth. More important, Canadians have made a major contribution by expressing their fears and concerns, and by demonstrating their support for reasonable and balanced solutions.
These values—not those of the opposition—are the ones Canadians want our justice system to reflect. We must do a better job of ensuring that this is the case. There are effective community-based alternatives, but they are not used to their full potential. We rely too much on incarceration, as the opposition often advocates, but this solution, while simple, does not help young offenders, victims, or communities.
The Reform Party would want us to believe that the criminal justice system is in a deplorable state. This is not what the statistics show, but of course Reform members do not know how to read or write. The victimization rate has gone down between 1998 and 1992. The picture we get when we care to inform ourselves seriously is a far cry from those levels advanced by those who want us to think that we have to lock ourselves up for fear that we might be attacked if we dare walk out on our streets.
The Reform Party has been claiming that the system is broken ever since it came into this House in 1993 but it does not have any hard facts to prove it. Yes there are crimes. Yes there are victims and one is too many. That we agree on. But it is not a fair statement to say that the whole system has to be abandoned.
Why is it then that the opposition continues to claim that the system is broken when Canada's justice system is at least as effective as any of the other western societies? What is it that is broken in Canada? What is it that we are not doing in Canada that is much more efficient elsewhere?
I would suggest, if the members care to listen, it is because of the very failure of the opposition to demonstrate that crime is rampant in Canadian society that it has to resort to empty rhetoric and petty politics to instil the fear of crime and to try to put this government on the defensive.
The best way to fight crime is to ensure that crime is not committed. As the Minister of Justice indicated on May 12 when she outlined her strategy for the renewal of youth justice, crime prevention is at the heart of a criminal justice system that works effectively.
A second phase of the crime prevention initiative will soon be launched. These initiatives and others, which include the strengthening of aboriginal communities, place a strong emphasis on dealing with the root causes of youth justice and helping communities to support and provide guidance to their children and youth which is a key ingredient in making our young people less vulnerable to a life of crime.
As for victims, I would caution the reliance the Reform Party has been placing on a victims bill of rights. Such a bill could only address matters within the federal government's jurisdiction. I believe that the federal role in that area is rather limited. As the hon. member of the Bloc reminded Reformers, I would like to remind them that there is provincial jurisdiction in this area, in the administration. They often forget that.
I want to remind the House that the justice and human rights committee is looking into the issue of what can be done to help the plight of victims. In fact there will be a national forum for victims rights here in Ottawa in early June. They also forget that. I have no doubt that the Minister of Justice will be interested. We encourage hon. members to hold more town hall meetings to get the real opinion of Canadians as they often do when they hold their town hall meetings if they are willing to listen.