The Members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs have great hopes for the department in the area of alternative justice. It is felt that by allowing the communities to take control of their own problems, solutions can be found that do not impact on the justice system and lead to healing in the community.

The committee was pleased to hear that work is progressing on evaluation and accountability frameworks for community justice committees. Members are particularly concerned that the community justice specialists have the tools to be of assistance to the community justice committees. The money to travel to assist communities in setting up justice committees is crucial during the formative stage.

This leads the standing committee to wonder whether there are enough community justice specialists as more and more community justice committees start up. The members ask that the department monitor this situation to ensure the quality of service that the community justice specialists can provide to the communities remains constant and does not suffer from overloading.