Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few general comments to make about the department. In my observations over the past couple of years, I think I'm pretty satisfied with the work the Minister and the department have done. They've taken on new challenges. Taking over corrections, in itself, is a big challenge. I think they've absorbed that very professionally. As the Minister has stated, in a time of escalating crime, diminishing dollars and competing demands on the system, every year it becomes more difficult to provide the same level of service. I think, keeping all that in mind, the Minister and the department have done a competent job in dealing the many problems they have to deal with.
I have a few comments to make. One is about the sort of thing that causes crime and some ideas of how we, as a government and as a society, have to deal with crime with less dollars. I've travelled around the world and have spent years in many countries. Each culture likes to think of itself as different and better than others, but the reality is, everyone is very, very similar in certain areas. There is probably about the same percentage of people in each culture who are very good and very bad and most people fall somewhere in the middle. That doesn't change wherever you go around the world.
I think we have to recognize that there are increasing pressures now, not just here but everywhere in the world, on society. There is violence on television, more people competing for fewer jobs, less security, it is the age of mass communication and what have you. Here, it is compounded with cultural clashes with one culture being forced to abide by the rules that have been imposed upon them by another culture, and there is high unemployment. All those things have played a part. But, I think we also have to recognize that individuals have to take some responsibility for their actions in this society, as in all societies.
So, when I look at how one would categorize different degrees of crime, it seems to me that the justice system as we know it in Canada is, in many ways, pretty archaic. Society has changed much faster than the justice system has been able to adapt to that society. I like the emphasis of the department on a community-based justice system and I think the philosophy is right. As the Minister has found out, unfortunately, all the different components of the justice system move very slowly to achieve that end. By the time you get to the place you should have been four years ago, you are still four years behind because everything has changed that quickly in the meantime.
I think there has to be a greater realization by everybody in the justice system that communities have to play a much more important role, that parents have to play a much more important role and that you can't depend on the justice system to redress all the ills there are in the world. It just won't work. The system was never structured to do that.
Who makes up the population of our correctional institutions? From what I understand, the profile of the young offender has changed over the last ten years. The young offender now is probably a little more violent than the young offender was five years ago. The crimes are a little more serious. The use of drugs is maybe a little more prevalent than it was before. There was a time when we could say that 95 per cent, or whatever, of crimes were directly alcohol related but I think people are seeing much more serious manifestations now of problems in our system. We all know that the system is having a heck of a time trying to keep up with all of this.
It would seem to me, though, at a time when you have less money and you have to priorize, the first and obvious thing, to me, anyhow, is who do you try to salvage out of all of this? I mean, if you only have so many dollars, obviously you concentrate any new resources you have on young people. You can't afford any more. Let's not kid ourselves, the time is coming when we won't be able to spend the same amount of dollars across the board as we do now. So, if we have to -- hard though this may be to priorize -- number one, we spend any new dollars on young people. Intervene early, intervene aggressively with young people. So, to me, that is the first, obvious priority that one has to make.
I think the second reality one has to make is that...Again, back to the idea that individuals do have some responsibility and that our jails right now are filled with a lot of fairly non-violent type offenders. Canada and the United States are two of the few countries left in the western world that fill their jails with non-violent offenders, and though a lot of this is out of our responsibility because the Criminal Code is a federal responsibility, more and more I think we have to look at alternate ways of dealing with non-violent offenders. They should not be in jails. It makes no sense to me whatsoever to have non-violent offenders in jails. What happens is that you bring young non-violent offenders into jails for B&Es, for instance, they come into contact with more hardened types and then you end up creating criminals. That makes no sense.
The third thing, at least from my point of view, is that, somewhere along the line, society is going to have to recognize repeat violent offenders. There are some people who cannot be rehabilitated in every race and culture in the world. I think society -- again, this is my view -- has to look at it from a total perspective. You do whatever you can to help young people to keep them out of the life, but if somebody has repeated and is hurting people, especially young people...I mean, if you look at a repeated violent offender, it is one category. Repeated violent sexual offender is a worse category, and the repeated violent sexual offender against children is the worst category. I think that with the third category, there is no way. I mean, society has an absolute responsibility to keep them right off the streets. I don't care how. There comes a point where you give up your rights, and the rights of potential victims are much, much more than the rights of a repeated child sexual offender, for instance.
Somehow we get everything all mixed up. Somehow we seem to live, and, at least in my opinion, back in the semi-idealistic state of the 1960s where everybody is basically really good and it is just a matter of unlocking the key to their sugar and sweetness. The reality is that some people aren't good, some people are awful and some people have to be put away for good.
I think we need a balanced approach that says we rehabilitate when we can and we do everything we can for young people. As somebody repeats and moves through the system, we are not going to have as many resources any more, and essentially we are warehousing. The third and most drastic case is that we are putting them away for good. What we are saying is they are out of the way.
So, from my point of view, that is an overall perspective, for whatever it is worth. I would really like to see us concentrate in those areas, and, in those areas that aren't under our control, for the Minister to bring them to the attention of the federal Minister in federal/provincial meetings. I know there is a lot of sympathy for parts of it, but very few people put that whole package together. It is almost like, on one side you are totally for rehabilitation or, on the other side, hang them all. It is not that. It has got to be a balance based on some reality and based on some philosophy.
So I don't think I have a lot more to say right now. I think the department is on the right track. I would like to hear the Minister articulate perhaps a little bit more clearly how different components of the system fit together, and I think that MLAs here generally see what the department is trying to do. I think we do understand the difficulties that the department is facing in the 1990s and wish you all the best of luck in dealing with these problems. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.