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Justice committee Yes, the level of litigations is constant. We are responsible for about 5,000 litigation cases, across Canada. In most cases, we're talking about legal action taken against the government. We defend the government's actions and the laws.
March 20th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee That has to do with our second strategic objective. We don't have any exact figures regarding that because we provide departments with legal advice. We provide legal services to all departments and regional offices to help them with their operations, and with bills and policy-mak
March 20th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee There are some cases in which departments or the Department of Justice will retain outside counsel, particularly in areas of expertise that are quite specialized. For cases that are quite large and often in remote areas where we don't have lawyers, we also provide services, as we
March 20th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee Yes, the spending for the department has gone up. It's certainly levelled off in the last few years. If you go back over, say, five years, spending for legal services in government went up both because of the increase in complexity and number of cases and related to salary increa
March 20th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee Mr. Chair, documents were provided, for example, to Parliament in respect to the costing of Bill C-10 at the time, in terms of requests, and we certainly continue to watch the impact of this. We don't run a comprehensive database. Over 80% of the administration of justice is done
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee I have no opening statement, Mr. Chair. We welcome your questions. I'm here with Don Piragoff, senior assistant deputy minister responsible for the policy sector. Also with me is Marie-Josée Thivierge. Ms. Thivierge is responsible for the administration and the financial issu
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee Thank you for your question. The budget of the director of public prosecutions comes from the Department of Justice portfolio, but it is independent. It is up to him to explain and defend his budget requests. The minister presents those requests to cabinet and to Parliament, bu
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee Yes.
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee I am not saying that I have no idea, but I am the Deputy Minister of Justice. The government decided to divide the Department of Justice into two. In fact, as soon as the government was elected, it created a separate office. I cannot speak for the previous deputy minister or for
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee I would be happy to, Mr. Chair. The aboriginal justice strategy is a long-standing program. It was established in 1991. As the minister said previously, there are 275 programs that reach over 800 communities. As was referred to in an earlier question, the origins of the aborigin
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee If we're funding a program, over the five-year life of the program, it's a 50:50 cost share. The aboriginal justice strategy is funded in five-year increments. In many provinces, given the responsibility for the administration of justice, they're investing more in serving abori
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee First, Mr. Casey, I appreciate your public words of thanks to the department. We're always pleased to assist parliamentarians from all parties in understanding the important legislation that we support the government in advancing. I'll ask Mr. Piragoff to speak briefly to the qu
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee I'm just waiting for the bells to start ringing, Mr. Chairman.
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee Madame Thivierge will be pleased to answer the questions that you have.
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney
Justice committee I have a brief supplemental response. Underlying the question is a very legitimate concern, which is, with all of the money coming and going, are there real reductions. I've been doing this job for a little over a year and I can tell you that I've signed more than 200 letters to
November 28th, 2013Committee meeting
William F. Pentney