Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Mandi Bolstad, director of corporate services. To my right is Martin Goldney, the deputy minister of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not sure whether we have that information available. I don't think that we do. I mean, that would be important. I do understand the importance of the question, because it does take considerable effort to get through the program, and there are, over the years, not that many completions. It would certainly be discouraging to know if there had been recidivism amongst those that complete it. That would be very disappointing. I don't know whether we would have the ability to access that information. Anyway, I get the point. We do not have that information. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. This is important work, and it is shared by several departments. Mr. Goldney could perhaps give more detail, but we do realize the importance of this. It's just not our department.

Yes, thank you, I do. I am pleased to present the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Department of Justice. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of just over $3 million, or 2.4 percent, over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

$1.389 million in forced-growth funding to provide the RCMP with increased capacity to cover the costs of officer participation in new and existing training initiatives and related administrative costs;

$179,000 in forced-growth funding to enable the Legal Aid Commission to add a new full-time criminal defence...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course, this is a voluntary program that people have to agree to enter into. I understand that they can, while on remand, enter into the program. Of course, one of the problems with remand is that their release date, if that is the right word, or the date that they will no longer be in remand is sometimes not known because they have upcoming court dates. I don't know whether that might be a discouragement to them from entering into the program, but they do have the ability to enter into the program. Sometimes they are on remand for a very long period of time and...

My understanding is that the pilot was a three-year program ending in 2020, March 31st, I assume.

Yes.

Yes, of course. It has been mentioned by the deputy minister that this is a pilot project. In my view, it has been a pretty successful project, so we are looking at it moving forward, and as I say, looking at the numbers of referrals, it appears to be a well-used program, but it is, of course, a pilot at this stage. Thank you.

Yes. We can do that.

Yes, that certainly is an important question, but I wonder if we might defer that until we get to policing services.