A Harper government proposal to quadruple the application for criminal pardons has the NDP up in arms, accusing the Conservatives of treating the justice system like a commercial enterprise.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced this month the pardon fee would increase from $150 to $631 to cover the administration costs of processing requests. It comes on the heels of an increase last December in which the fee went to $150 from $50 – where the price had stood since 1994.
NDP public safety critic Don Davies is now calling for a committee hearing into the issue, arguing there was no warning and no good reason given for the increase. He is also warning that it’s dangerous to bring in the concept of user pay to the justice system and that new pardon cost will be prohibitive to some Canadians.
A spokesman for Mr. Toews, however, says it’s simply not “reasonable to expect Canadians to subsidize requests for pardons from convicted criminals.”
Mr. Davies believes this is a slippery slope. “They are going to have to be very cautious about injecting the concept of cost-recovery into our justice system,” he told The Globe. “If a police officer stops you tonight and gives you a breathalyzer do you get a bill in the mail for that, the gas and the insurance ... cost recovery? This is our justice system – it’s not a commercial transaction.”
The NDP MP believes pardons not only help the individual but also the community by allowing ex-convicts to reintegrate into society, get working and in some cases get back to school.
Maybe so, but Mr. Toews’s spokesman says the program was “not sustainable at the current cost.”
“Increasing the user fee will contribute to the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the Parole Board of Canada’s pardons programs and ensure it is able to continue to meet its mandate,” Michael Patton told The Globe.
The new fee was arrived at after the minister asked the National Parole Board to establish what the cost of the service was and then propose a fee based on cost recovery, Mr. Patton explained. It takes into account inflation, improved service standards and the growth in pardon applications. (There are about 37,000 pardon applications a year of which 75 per cent are approved._
Mr. Davies, however, is accusing Mr. Toews of playing “pure politics” on this issue, tossing red meat at a Conservative base that wants the government to be ruthlessly tough on crime. The NDP MP also said the minister was “sneaky” as the change requires public consultation. Although the Commons public safety committee has been dealing with the broad issues of pardons since last June there was never any warning about the cost increase.
As well, Mr. Davies noted that the consultations, which ask the public to submit comments, are only two weeks long – and close in several days. He suggested this does not constitute “proper process.”
