Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to join the debate. As a member from British Columbia I commend the hon. member for Surrey North who has worked hard to introduce Bill C-260, an act to amend the Young Offenders Act. In many ways this is a timely proposal.
The government's strategy involves replacing the Young Offenders Act with new youth justice legislation which has proposed significant improvements to the youth justice system. The strategy focuses on three key areas: preventing youth crime, ensuring meaningful consequences for offences committed by youth, and improving rehabilitation and reintegration for young offenders.
The government's strategy for the renewal of youth justice launched on May 12, 1998 sets out a vision for responding to Canadians' concerns about youth crime. Clearly, Canadians want a youth justice system that protects society.
It is in the context of addressing problems with the current youth justice system through new youth justice legislation that Bill C-260 has been considered. The bill, sponsored by the hon. member for Surrey North, proposes making the offences of wilfully failing to comply with an undertaking made in connection with a young person's release from pretrial detention a hybrid rather than a summary conviction offence.
One of the weaknesses of the existing system relates to pretrial detention and judicial interim release. There is a failure to distinguish adequately between those who should be detained in custody prior to their trials and those who need not be. This situation should be addressed through greater clarity on the criteria for pretrial detention and enhanced program support to ensure there are alternatives for those who do not need to be in jail prior to trial. The hon. member for Surrey North's concern relates to those who are released and improperly supervised.
The provision of the Young Offenders Act that is the subject of Bill C-260 takes effect after the bail criteria have been applied and the youth has been found to be ineligible for judicial interim release. In such cases the current provisions of the Young Offenders Act permit youth to be placed in the care of a responsible adult instead of being detained in custody.
I thank the hon. member for Surrey North for bringing Bill C-260 forward and I assure him that it has been given every consideration during the development of the new youth justice legislation.
The new legislation will soon be introduced. It is an important component of our broad, comprehensive strategy to address youth crime.