Public Safety committee  Absolutely. It's a better service, and it has better interaction with victims.

Public Safety committee  I worked with families for 15 years to see the office created, so absolutely. Regarding the Correctional Services program, I'll say that we've worked incredibly well with them to address some really challenging cases that victims brought to us. The dedication of those people the

Public Safety committee  Setting the office up, we actually, in the first two years, weren't fully staffed, so we didn't use all the money. It's just been in the last year or so that we've been fully staffed, and I think the results we've had prove that. Our calls are up. Our Internet visits are up, I th

Public Safety committee  No. In fact, a couple of times I think I said that victims obviously have a vested interest in an appropriate sentence that holds offenders accountable. Victims want to see that. My point was that whether the sentence is longer or not, it doesn't really address the real needs the

Public Safety committee  I didn't come to talk about the program, but I think the registry is an important public safety tool, an important law enforcement tool. So I would not agree with cutting that program. You're right, we talked earlier about the amounts that were spent setting it up, but I think i

Public Safety committee  I think this gets down to the media and popular culture and what people think crime is. The statistics tell us that the people who are most likely to be fearful of being victims of violent crime are the elderly people. The truth is, they're the least likely people to actually be

Public Safety committee  I know Dr. Waller quite well. He's not only a crime prevention advocate but a very strong victims' advocate as well. I had arranged for a meeting between our office and the National Crime Prevention Council some weeks ago. I had hoped that we could really examine what kinds of pr

Public Safety committee  My focus is on the federal government, because that's our mandate. But regarding the programs you talk about, there's a similar program here in Ottawa. Those services are actually funded through victim fine surcharges. So we hope to see more resources go to those services. I don

Public Safety committee  I'll be honest, I don't know a lot about what's currently being done in prisons for offender programs. I guess in an overall recommendation I would encourage Corrections Canada to build effective, evidence-based programs that will change the behaviour of offenders in prison. I

Public Safety committee  Just to pick up on your example, we tend to look at property crimes as less serious. There are people out there whose homes are broken into, who are tremendously impacted by that crime. If somebody broke into my house, maybe I wouldn't be as upset, but if you're a single mother w

Public Safety committee  All I will say, Mr. Chair, is that I probably know some of the individuals you met with today. They're good people. This is an issue they've debated almost every single year--at least when I was connected to them--at their annual general meeting or executive board meeting.

Public Safety committee  I know they brought in advocates on both sides. It's obviously an issue they continue to discuss. There's isn't unanimity. I mean, that's the reality.

Public Safety committee  Sure. On the question about the registry, my understanding was that we were talking about costs from a long time ago. Whether you agree with it or not, there was some mismanagement of how it was set up. But you're right that the costs today are certainly much lower. One of the

Public Safety committee  I think that's a good move. We had actually recommended to the minister to move in that direction. There was some research that the department released—I'm going to say it was in the summer of 2008—that looked at how the surcharge was being implemented. I don't want to go into

Public Safety committee  From our perspective, restitutions are court orders. They're part of an offender's sentence that a judge has given them. From our perspective, they're obligated to pay that money, whether they're in prison or not. That doesn't mean you're going to take every cent that the offen