Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have read the Justice department’s analysis of impacts resulting from the federal crime bill, the so-called Safe Streets and Communities Act. The law’s requirement for mandatory minimum sentences and limitations on additional sentences place huge new burdens upon our policing, courts and correction services, and possibly resulting in tens of millions of dollars more in expenditures, not to mention human costs.
According to the department’s estimate, the need to expand the North Slave Correctional Centre could cost $32 million and perhaps another $35 million for a new women’s facility in the South Slave. Impacts include increases in court days and legal aid, increases in appeals, increased police service at courts, more youth held in pre-trial detention and receiving longer sentences. The list goes on and on. The federal government is downloading its vengeance view of crime prevention and we foot the bill.
The report concludes that without major new expenditures, “this situation is not sustainable for the longer term.” This in a jurisdiction suffering some of the nation’s highest level of family violence, poor educational achievement, substance abuse, homelessness, poverty and unemployment; all factors that fuel crime.
What this situation emphasizes to me is the desperate need to reduce the number of persons destined for courts and jails. Only prevention can break the chain of causes leading to crime and reduce the negative costs swamping the justice system. That is early childhood development to produce citizens capable of prosperous and law-abiding lives. It is an Anti-Poverty Strategy for coordinated action on the conditions that germinate crime. It is about humane, effective treatment of the high proportion of offenders suffering from mental illness, through the introduction of mental health diversion or wellness courts.
We are stuck with the federal law and its consequences, but progressive thought and action demonstrate that preventing criminality is the best way to fight crime. We must continue to protest this regressive federal action, but in the long term and the ultimate good of our society regardless of the justice system, we must emphasize prevention of poor choices and the fostering of healthy citizens capable of productive lives.
The Ministers of Justice and Health have made commitments in this respect. I will be asking questions of them in that regard later today. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
