R.J. Simpson

Thank you. So the drop in numbers is due to a number of changes to the Criminal Code and decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada that changed the rules around bail and remanding prisoners. We used to have significantly more remanded inmates in the facilities. That is one of the issues. Perhaps I can hand it to the deputy minister for some more detail on this. Thank you.

Thank you. So if someone qualifies for legal aid, then the Legal Aid Commission, if they don't have staff lawyers, can contract outside lawyers. So we haven't been looking at increases in legal aid. And as well, many of these individuals who are coming up from the south don't access -- who are arrested for these drug crimes don't access our legal aid. They have high-priced lawyers in major centres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize my former colleague and current friend, former Minister Pauline Chinna. She always created a lively atmosphere in Cabinet, and we miss her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will hand it to the director. Thank you.

Thank you. So the facility is -- as I stated, the capacity of the correctional system far exceeds the need and so -- I mean, we could have infrastructure improvements to the building, but the fact remains that we have excess capacity. And that's in all of our facilities. You know, we have one or two or three women in the women's facility, and I believe the capacity there is 24. We have between one and two and three individuals in the youth facility, and the capacity there is significantly higher than that, at least a couple dozen if not more than that. And so to repurpose the correctional...

Thank you. So the Member stated that, you know, we need some short-term solutions to deal with the situation we're facing now. And so the focus -- my focus has been on supporting the RCMP, getting more resources to the territory in terms of RCMP and legislative tools for the RCMP, and working with them in any way we can to ensure that they can kick down doors when they need to, and they did deter criminals from coming up here, and then they can just disrupt the life of drug dealers. And so that has been the focus. As I've said, going forward we do need to look at the long term -- the long term...

Thank you. No. And I would say that the Member stated this is a very specialized area of law, it's essentially family law. You can have some additional training, but I wouldn't characterize it as very specialized. And the position does not have to work with children. There have been no cases held by the children's lawyer for quite some time and so there was no working with children. We have -- there is a number of panel lawyers, as I have mentioned, and they have experience in this. Some of them are actually criminal lawyers or have experience in other types of law so, you know, while lawyers...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that information. I don't know if individuals want to work at a wellness centre. I don't know the backgrounds of the individuals involved. I am not opening a wellness centre. There's no wellness centre in the Justice budget. Thank you.

Thank you. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, there were 318 drug violations. In 2022, there were 468. And so that's a significant increase. There are statistics that are released yearly about the police-reported crime. And those show that between 2021 and 2022, there was an 80 percent increase in robberies, which are often things associated with drugs. In the past year, there what's been over a hundred percent increase in the number of drug seizures for the amount of drugs seized. So there's a significant increase that we're seeing. But also a significant response to that increase that we hope...

Thank you. And those are all things that could be done by someone in that role. The extent to which they're done, I'm not sure. But the duties will be taken on by the executive director of the Legal Aid Commission with support from the other staff. And the Commission, from what I understand, feels confident that those duties can be absorbed and done without any disruption in service. Thank you.