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Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Saunders, you quickly went over this topic in your presentation, but I would like a few more details.

The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections now reports to you. Could you give me some more details on the amounts you mentioned briefly in your presentation?

Could you tell me the budget allocated to the operation of the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections?

Could you also compare the amount that office receives with the amount it received before?

Are we just talking about a transfer of funds? Will the budget be the same?

How much money are we talking about?

Very good.

The minister was asked a question about one program. There was an amount of $1.6 million to support services to victims, do violence prevention in First Nations communities and increase support nationally for missing persons investigations. The minister said that, in the upcoming supplementary estimates, he was going to ask for $2 million. He mentioned expenditures of about $1.8 million just to fight prostitution.

Could you break down those costs?

If $1.6 million is being transferred to another program, could you tell me the exact name of that program?

What will that amount be spent on?

As I do not know who can answer that question, I will not ask anyone in particular.

That would be in the supplementaries, not in the main estimates.

What about prostitution? I know that the minister has addressed this issue particularly. The minister promised $20 million over five years.

We would expect $4 million for one year, if I'm correct in that, so how much money will actually be allocated in this budget?

That is great.

Thank you.

I would like to go back to my colleague's question. I think it is extremely important. Part of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights is going to be operated by the provinces. I know that the minister talked about some budget increase for child support centres. You have been asked the question several times before, but I would like to get you back to the issue.

Have you established or designated a program to handle the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights? Will that money be allocated by the department according to its plans and priorities? Are the studies, the investigations, that the department has conducted going to allow programs to be created for the provinces or the tribunals?

For example, we are talking about administrative tribunals. Are some aspects of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights going to apply to administrative rights tribunals, for example?

Could you comment on that?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

My first question is about Bill C-23, which was passed and which transfers the Elections Canada Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, responsible for investigations and the management of federal elections, to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, I believe that the 2015-2016 main estimates do not contain any funds or increases specifically for the management of the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

I would like to know if a budget is planned for the administration of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and if so, what that amount is. I do not know what type of budget he had before, but I would like to know if that has been drastically reduced.

Thank you very much, Minister.

My second question is about the administration of the Victims Fund. We discussed this fund at length when we studied the bill on the Victims Bill of Rights. One of the elements of that charter was that a part of the services was to offset the victims' surcharge.

However, since the 2015-2016 main estimates contain no significant increase in the amounts available to the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, I would like to know whether the contributions from the Victims Fund will increase proportionally.

I see here that there is a $1.6 million cut due to the expiry of funding to support victims' services and the prevention of violence in aboriginal communities, and to increase national support for missing persons investigations.

Could we have some details on the expiry of that funding? Will the Department of Justice be renewing it?

What amount will be allocated?

What will be the amount for that particular program you're talking about?

Good afternoon, my name is Ève Péclet and I am the member for La Pointe-de-l'Île.

It is situated in the east end of Montreal.

I work on justice matters with my colleagues of the official opposition. I support my colleague, Ms. Boivin. I'm very happy that we have this opportunity to have these discussions today.

I'm looking forward to our discussion.

Can I answer this?

It's a good question, and I want to address the panel to talk about the fact that those are all principles that are dealt with by the provinces. In our federation, the provinces are responsible for the administration of justice. Here at the justice committee we would deal with legislation to legislate over criminal infractions depending on the law, but the administration of justice is dealt with by the provinces. We would not have legislation that could legislate over how litigation happens.

The access to a fair trial is a constitutional right, which is in the Constitution, and there is also the fact that Parliament is independent from the judicial system. Parliament can only legislate on law, but the application of the law has nothing to do with either the government side, or the official opposition, or Parliament itself. The administration of justice is provincial, and the application of the law and the administration of justice is independent—as it should be—from the government and Parliament, which is also a constitutional principle in the Canadian Constitution.