Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to get up to speak to Bill C-68. My colleague from the Bloc Quebecois may get his wish. At the rate the bill is going through the House, and with rumours that we may prorogue some time this fall, it may never see its final resting place in this session.
Last spring the House passed Motion No. 261 which called for the establishment of a national head start program. This motion, the vision and work of my colleague from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, may well form part of the solution we seek in the administration of youth justice. I might even mention another colleague right next to me, the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, who seconded the motion of the hon. member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca.
The genesis of this enlightened approach to raising, nurturing and disciplining a child is based on the concept of prevention of anti-social behaviour, rather than the management of a situation or problem that has been years in the making.
The work and research of my colleague from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca reveals the importance of the first eight years of life. If an individual is exposed to pernicious behaviour such as drug abuse, sexual abuse, violence, dysfunctional parenting or absence of parenting at all, it has a negative impact on the child's brain. The neurological development of the child's brain is impeded. This has a consequence as the child grows to adolescence and on to become adult.
There is no question large segments of the current prison population are products of negative family exposure years before. This does not diminish their deeds, but I wonder if given a better chance we could have eliminated some of the possibility that these people would turn to criminal behaviour. Bill C-68 is all about making sure that people do not turn to criminal behaviour and that young children do not turn into criminals.
Would it not be better to spend a few dollars on those now in their formative years of one to eight than to spend it on lawyers, courts, psychologists, prisons, halfway houses and parole officers later? As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Bill C-68 provides us with an opportunity to initiate the practice of prevention rather than crisis management. Have we not been practising crisis management of young offenders since the early 1980s? Are we not on a treadmill to nowhere? Are we trying to transmogrify something that cannot be done?
I would like to speak about a national headstart program as one means to start on a different path. While I realize this initiative may not be a panacea, it may be at least one of the components in reducing youth crime and developing a more emotionally and socially adjusted adolescent into our society.
In the course of my years in politics one of the problems and curiosities as I see it in the development of public policy is neglect of linkages between programs emanating from department to department within governments. By this I mean government is negligent in identifying existing programs and policies which may aid or benefit in instituting a new program or help move a new concept along.
In short there is a plethora of programs out there in some sort of void waiting to be accessed and used. We have to get better at using the tools we have if we are to make the enlightened choices that we should be making.
Back in 1966 the government's own National Crime Prevention Council identified a national headstart program as a way to prevent crime and one that is cost effective. I mention again my colleagues the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca and the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands who put that motion before the House in this session. In 1996 the government was doing it itself, talking about a headstart program yet to this date we do not have anything. There is nothing in this bill that talks about going a different way or doing anything different from what we have been doing all along.
One headstart program that was identified as being instrumental in significantly reducing crime was the Perry preschool program in Michigan. This program was one of two others identified, one which is in Moncton and the other in Hawaii. They were proven to in total decrease child abuse by 99%. Any program that can reduce this problem by 99% is one that we should be taking a quicker look at than we are in the House. A few years ago we looked at it from the government side and now this side puts in a motion. We are still not looking at it.
This program kept kids in school longer and dropped youth crime by 50% in other areas. It decreased teen pregnancies by 40% and saved the taxpayer in the final analysis $30,000 per child. What a success story. What a testament if not a template for Canada to use as a national youth strategy. Why are we not doing it?
The government has some money in this program but it only covers about 30% of the cost instead of 50% like it agreed to. It could save us $30,000 per child by bringing in this program. Why does the bureaucracy not push the government to get this program in place? The government bureaucracy says it is a good idea. Members on this side say it is a good idea. We should be looking at it.
We listened to our colleagues from Quebec who are opposed to this bill. They brought up some very good points. The government likes to attack and fight them because they are separatists but the facts are that the province of Quebec has a lower crime rate for children than we do in the rest of Canada. We should be looking at the program Quebec has. We should be paying attention to what is being done there.
I hope that when we get this bill into committee we will have lots of time to bring people from the province of Quebec to tell us what they disagree with in the present legislation and where they think we should be going. We should be looking to where the successes are, just as we should be looking to the headstart program because of the great success in that program.
One of the critical elements in the success of these three programs is the involvement of the parents. Parents are and have to be the axis around which the program revolves. No amount of money will replace the intrinsic importance of good parenting. Without a loving safe environment with rules of behaviour defined and boundaries established can a child be expected to grow to a stable socially responsible participant in society.
Bill C-68 has three elements concerning the role of parents. Should a child fall between the cracks and need help, under Bill C-68 parents will be called upon to become involved with representatives of the community to design and implement extrajudicial measures. There will have to be compulsory attendance of the parent at court when considered by the judge to be in the best interest of the young person. There will be increased punishment for the parent who signs a court undertaking to supervise the young person upon release and who wilfully waits or fails to fulfill that responsibility. That is extremely important. I will repeat that. There will be increased punishment for the parent who signs a court undertaking to supervise the young person upon release and who wilfully fails to fulfill that responsibility.
My colleague from Surrey North played a great part in this paragraph that I am reading. We should give him a lot of credit for the work that he has put into this youth legislation. We all know the effort that he puts in in the House working toward children. We all appreciate his commitment very much.
My colleague from Surrey North can take great pride, credit and solace in managing to motivate the government to include his initiatives in Bill C-68. It is because of the member's determination and concern as manifested in his private member's Bill C-260 that we have the parental responsibility prescribed in the new youth criminal justice act. It is one good part of this bill if nothing else.
That is why it is even more unfair for the government members to perpetuate untruths about Reform policy surrounding how to deal with 10 and 11 year olds in youth justice. At no time has any Reform member suggested incarcerating 10 and 11 year old kids. In fact enlightened work like the kind instituted by the member for Surrey North indicates a compassion for children and an attempt to put the onus on the parents.
Frankly it is the government that would like to sweep the issue of 10 and 11 year olds under the carpet, ignoring this challenge by saying there is no problem. It is simply abandoning these children. Is that not in itself a form of incarceration?
Maybe it is the government that has to take a look at its lack of recognition of 10 and 11 year olds in its new bill. Maybe it is the federal government's responsibility to become equal financial participants in programs with the provinces to rehabilitate these kids who have strayed. Maybe it is the federal government's responsibility to deal now with the issue of 10 and 11 year olds before they become incorrigibles later on.
It will however take more than $206 million over three years. The provinces have pleaded with the federal government on the need to deal with this age group. Why is it so difficult for the federal government? Is it because of the money? That is what is scary. This age group needs help and needs it badly. It is really a money issue. The government tries to cover it up under the flim-flam and the puffery but we need help in those areas. The provinces need help in those areas. We will debate these issues very deeply in committee and I look forward to that.