Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased today to speak in support of the bill of the hon. member for Surrey North. The bill is quite clear in its intent to make section 7(2) of the Young Offenders Act a hybrid offence to present clear and genuine penalties to people who make a signed undertaking and then fail to live up to it.
People who post bail for accused offenders forfeit it if the bail conditions are not met. Why should any responsible adult who signs an undertaking to supervise a young offender not have to pay a significant penalty for failing to meet his or her commitment? The concept is fairly clear.
The hon. member for Vancouver East suggested that the proposed legislation might discriminate against parents who for one reason or another lack the means to provide necessary supervision. Section 7(2) of the Young Offenders Act is specifically designed to protect the public. It is not put there for the convenience of the parent. It is to protect the public.
Parents are not obliged to sign these undertakings. There is no rule or coercion which says they must sign these undertakings. If a parent voluntarily undertakes to accept responsibility, I would submit the parent should be held responsible for his or her actions. It is not something that can be done frivolously.
The speech of the hon. member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve left me somewhat bemused. I did not know what he was getting at a lot of the time. If I could cut through all of it, it would seem that he rejects the concept of individual responsibility, not just for juveniles but for adults as well. Bill C-260 is all about accepting responsibility for personal undertakings.
The parliamentary secretary and others made reference to the fact that the bill would duplicate one of the provisions of the upcoming youth criminal justice act. It would be covered in section 138 of the act, but I do not accept the premise that because the YCJA may be coming down the road some time in the future we should not be seriously considering this one small amendment to the YOA at this time. One does not stop scrubbing floors at home just because there is a plan to make major renovations. One continues normal everyday maintenance.
Bill C-260 could be enacted now. The new YCJA was only tabled last week. Heaven knows when it will become law. Hopefully it will not become law in exactly the same form in which it is now. It needs a lot of revision and renovation. We could make this one quick fix to help the public, to benefit society in general at this time, simply by enacting a bill that incidentally has been coming down the pike for a year and a half. It has taken that long to reach the point where we are now.
I get a feeling—maybe it is a misplaced feeling—in listening to the hon. parliamentary secretary that there is a slight Machiavellian motive here, the ploy that we should not worry about Bill C-260 because the meat of it will be buried or hidden away in the new youth criminal justice act when it comes down.
Maybe the broader bill is being gussied up a bit with the clause to attempt to force MPs to support a pretty noxious piece of legislation for the sake of one very valuable clause. It is like the old story about a chocolate covered smartie buried in a bowl of manure. Anyone wanting to eat the smartie knows what has to be done. I do not appreciate that approach to legislation.
The parliamentary secretary diverged a little from the debate today. I would like to respond to what she said about the child welfare and mental health systems being all that we need to look after 10 and 11 year olds caught up in the criminal justice system. That is what we are relying on right now. That is what we are doing. We are trying to deal with the 10 and 11 year olds strictly through child welfare and the mental health system and it is not working.
The new YCJA would do nothing to change an approach which has been a dismal failure. I have not had a chance to read the bill in any depth yet but on scanning the bill I cannot see very much serious improvement in the YCJA over the old YOA. It is the old car with a new coat of paint. Why are we taking this long and tedious approach to doing nothing? The Muslims have a saying that the elephant laboured and brought forth a mouse. That seems to be what is happening with the new act.