Public Safety committee  I think certainly if the government wanted to take a look at something like that, then we would certainly be supportive and be able to provide some kind of statistical overview and data that would help inform if the government were looking at gradations of fees. I think we'd be able to support that, but it would really depend on the policy thrust of the government.

Public Safety committee  No, as long as the fee is paid.

Public Safety committee  That's been the case since the Criminal Records Act was last amended, in 2012.

Public Safety committee  The third scheme, which is what we have in place right now, is the five- and 10-year waiting periods that came into effect after March 13, 2012: five years for a summary conviction offence and 10 years for an indictable offence.

Public Safety committee  There are three schemes at play here. Prior to June 29, 2010, the scheme was such that a person had to wait three years for a summary conviction offence and five years for an indictable offence. After June 29, 2010, legislation was passed. It was Bill C-23A, which increased the waiting periods to a mixture of three years, five years and 10 years, with a considerable number of criteria depending on the nature of the offence and whether it was a sexual offence or not.

Public Safety committee  That was a policy decision of the government of the day. I remember it well. I had a hand in drafting those amendments. It reflected the government's desire to reflect the seriousness of offences. There was a determination that the cost of the program should be borne by the record suspension applicant rather than the government, so those changes reflect the government's intent.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it was all done at the same time. As the legislative amendments were moving, we were also moving orders in council to adjust the user fee at the same time.

Public Safety committee  I will defer in just a moment to my colleague from Public Safety because I know that the government and Public Safety Canada had undertaken a public consultation on the Criminal Records Act. The study that I referred to was one that the Parole Board had done in 2016, and I'm happy to provide a copy to the committee, both an executive summary and the full report.

Public Safety committee  I would defer to my colleague.

Public Safety committee  I would defer to my colleague from Public Safety for part of this, because it really goes to the policy intent of the government and the legislative scheme that's in place. All I can really tell you is that the board is obligated to implement the legislative scheme as it exists right now.

Public Safety committee  Yes, I do. Fundamentally your question goes to the level of effort on the part of the PBC to process any particular file, and obviously, presumably, some files are more time-consuming and difficult to process. Notionally, there's some alignment here with the service standards. Right now, the service standard for processing a summary conviction offence is six months, whereas for processing an indictable offence it's 12 months.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it is. The $631 is based on a full cost recovery program. When the assessment was done and when the legislative amendments were brought into force in 2012, the $631 was brought in at the same time. We had done an assessment to determine the cost of administering the entirety of the program.

Public Safety committee  Yes, sir.

Public Safety committee  What I can say is that the fee that is in place right now—the $631—falls under the umbrella of the Service Fees Act and that fee is set by order in council under the authority of the minister. As an administrative tribunal, we are obligated to charge that fee. We do not have discretion to waive that fee or to process it in installments.

Public Safety committee  I can. I'll give you my interpretation of that, certainly, and then I'll ask my colleague to join in if I have missed anything. I think the short answer is really that with respect to the criminal justice system in Canada it is quite decentralized, so there is no central repository for criminal records.