Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have an opportunity to discuss Bill C-68 once again. The motion before the House proposed by the Bloc Quebecois looks at the possibility of in essence striking the entire bill and sending it back for further discussion.
Although we in the Conservative Party have great difficulty with some of the initiatives, and perhaps more so with the perception of what the bill will actually accomplish, I think it would be a giant step backward to completely throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to youth justice. That will not accomplish what we in this place hope to accomplish, which is to fix a existing fundamental problem when it comes to youth crime.
One major problem with the Young Offenders Act since its introduction over 15 years ago has been the impression the act has given young people that they will not be held accountable for criminal behaviour. Right or wrong, that is the impression out there and that is what is drastically undermining public confidence in our youth justice system and our justice system in general.
An attempt has been made by the government to address some of the problems. I will be very straightforward in pointing out some of the steps that are improvements on what we have seen. Obviously the ability to bring parents into our justice system is something that has to occur. However what will occur in this instance is not the full package.
What will happen now is that the parents of young offenders who have been apprehended and are in the process of going through court and potentially being released back into the community will now be forced to come forward, sign, and essentially make a contract with the province and the attorney general's department that they will ensure the conditions deemed appropriate by a court will be followed. They will be brought to court themselves and charged if those conditions are not adhered to. That is what will be accomplished and that is a laudable attempt to fix some of the problem.
However, what we do not see happening is parents being brought forward to answer for where they were in the first instance when a child was involved in a criminal act. Why is it that a young person was out breaking into a neighbour's house or stealing their car at 2 o'clock in the morning? That accountability we have not yet achieved and sadly we will not through this piece of legislation.
There has been much ado, much discussion, much debate and acrimony about the age of accountability. Again I think the key word in all of this is accountability. The Liberals have countered attempts by the opposition to debate this issue by saying “Look at this overreaction on the part of neo-Conservatives who want to somehow throw 10 and 11 year olds in jail for criminal acts”. That is not the case at all. That is certainly not the position that has been taken by the Conservative Party.
What we want to see happen, obviously, is that if by some misdirection or some misdeed a 10 or 11 year old finds himself or herself involved particularly in a violent criminal act, there will be some mechanism by which to bring that young person to account, not necessarily through the full hammer of criminal sanctions in a courtroom, but at least there should be the ability to trigger a response.
As it currently stands, that does not exist in our Criminal Code. It exists in other countries. It once existed in our Criminal Code under the old Juvenile Delinquents Act.
As I said at the outset, the issue is accountability. The issue is the state, the province, the police and our social services having a mechanism by which to bring to account and to bring forward some recourse for a young person at that tender age.
Certainly the whole principle behind the Young Offenders Act and the principle behind the new youth criminal justice act is to recognize that there is obviously a difference in the level of accountability that will be levelled upon a person under the age of 18. We are saying that it should be taken one step further. Drop it down a bit further so that we can at least start the process of rehabilitation, bringing that person into a system, be it the criminal justice system or be it a diversion into the social welfare net. There has to be something to start the process.
We know that when violent crime is involved the response has to be quick. The criminal justice system, I suggest, is best suited and best equipped to make that intervention and then to follow through. After the fact, when an arrest has been made, when the justice system has been given the tools to act, then we can decide what the long term recourse will be.
To accomplish all of this the provinces will have to receive greater funding. This has been the crux of the issue with respect to the provinces and their responses, both positive and negative, when one starts to look at the overall strategy as to what is to be accomplished in our youth justice system.
The Progressive Conservative government has to take some fault in this as well because when the justice system was first set up to encompass the Young Offenders Act we never saw the 50% share of the funding that has to be shouldered by the federal government. That has never occurred. The Progressive Conservatives froze that funding. The Liberals then went further to cut it to the point where, in some provinces, it is below 30%.
The irony in all of this and the reason for giving some background is to recognize the fact that much of what is sought by this youth justice system, that is, earlier intervention, preventive measures, a proactive approach taken to justice, which are all wonderful buzzwords and laudable goals, cannot be accomplished unless we have the opportunity to put into the hands of the provinces the proper funding to administer it. We know that the drastic cuts that have been handed out by this federal government have had an absolutely deteriorating effect on social services throughout the provinces.
The brunt of this legislation and the administration thereof will fall on the provinces once again. The 50% funding that should be coming from this government to accomplish all of the goals, as laudable as they are, simply will not happen without that resource allocation.
Once again we have seen the government speaking grandly, giving a grandiose plan as to what it would like to accomplish. There has been a great deal of absolutely wonderful press conferences and announcements that have been made time and time again at the press gallery instead of here in the House of Commons. That was all done in the run-up, in the raised expectations of the new youth criminal justice act. However, those goals, those accomplishments that the government has put forward, will not be achieved unless the provinces are given the money.
There has been a lot of discussion in the Chamber as well about the approach that has been taken by the Quebec provincial government and there are statistics to back it up. La belle province de Québec c'est la première province pour la justice when it comes to the treatment of youth. The difficulty with this legislation is that once more we see a very cynical position put forward by the government. Not only could it have borrowed from what Quebec has done, it has said “If you do not do it our way you can opt out and not receive the money”. Not only is the money not sufficient, the provinces can decide not to do it the federal government's way and they will not get the money.
We see an approach that time and time again has left Canadians feeling very cynical, feeling almost despondent about the way we accomplish these goals. They are common goals. We in the House should certainly be able to put partisanship aside when it comes to accomplishments in our youth justice system. However, every time we get into these issues emotion and partisanship prevails and we get bogged down in debates, casting aspersions on who did what last. The Tories did this. The Liberals did that. It is the Reform Party. It is the Bloc. It is the NDP. That is not going to accomplish these goals.
There are issues in health, taxation and justice that we should be trying to work toward in a very positive fashion instead of continually dredging up the past. We could go back to John A. Macdonald, if we want to do that. We see it and we live it every day in this place.
If the government is serious about accomplishing these things and if it is serious about aiding the provinces in the administration of this new youth justice act, it should not simply spout figures like the $206 million that is going to be handed to the provinces in the next three years, it should live up to the commitment that was originally intended and that was that the federal government would pick up 50% of the tab when it came to the administration of justice and the administration of this new youth criminal justice act.
I, like other members of the House, look forward to participating at the committee level, proposing changes, working with my colleagues, both in opposition and on the government side, to achieve these laudable goals.