Parliamentary Committee Notes: Action Against Gun and Gang Violence related to Bail Reform
Date: March 20, 2023
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: CPB
Issue:
Gun and gang violence funding programs
Proposed Response:
- Gun violence is a tragic reality across Canada that often has links to gangs. People in communities across Canada deserve to feel safe in their communities.
- Our Government is steadfast in its commitment to addressing the social conditions that lead youth and young adults to get involved in a life of crime and engage in criminal behaviour.
- Since 2016, we have invested more than $920 million to keep guns out of the hands of gangs and reduce gang violence, including funding available to provinces and territories under an existing program to be spend in the area of bail reform
- Last year, we launched the Building Safer Communities Fund
providing $250 million directly to municipalities and Indigenous communities to support youth and families impacted by gang involvement. As of March 2023, agreements have been signed with communities in British Columbia, Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We also entered into an asymmetrical agreement with the Province of Quebec.
- This builds on our investments of over $358 million over five years that brings together supports from all levels of government to tackle the increase in gun-related violence and gang activity in Canada through the Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence. The initiative includes the Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund which directs funds to our provincial and territorial partners to reduce gun and gang violence.
- Eligible activities under this program include funding for law enforcement activities and prosecution activities to enhance capacity to address existing, emerging, and or underlying gun and gang issues.
- Funding from the Gun and Gang Violence Fund has been used by Ontario to support bail reform through their Guns, Gangs, and Violence Reduction Strategy for the Intensive Firearm Bail Support Team and the East Region Guns and Gangs Team to work with local police divisions to present the best available evidence to court.
- Our Government continues to tackle the challenge of gun crime and works to keep Canadians safe by adding resources to fight smuggling and firearms trafficking. In May 2022, Bill C-21, our historic legislation and Canada’s most significant action on gun violence in a generation, implemented a national freeze on handguns, and proposed provisions to address firearms trafficking, smuggling and related offences and the role firearms have in domestic violence and self-harm.
Background:
Over the past year, public shootings have increased in Canada’s larger municipalities. In 2021, shootings involved potential mistaken identities, and retaliatory shooting deaths in public, high traffic areas. Child and youth victims continue to be caught in the crossfire in places such as playgrounds, downtown streets, strip malls and housing complexes. Mistaken identity injuries and homicides, as well as shootings targeting community youth workers, and affecting innocent bystanders have become more visible over the past three years.
Firearm-related homicide doubled from 2013 to 2017 (134 to 267), fell slightly in 2018 (249), and increased again in 2019 (261), 2020 (277), and 2021 (297). Shootings are the most common method of homicide and have been generally increasing over the last nine years, seeing an 121% increase from 2013 to 2021. Nationally, there were 184 gang-related homicides in 2021, 33 more than in 2020. The majority (74%) were committed with a firearm, most often a handgun (65%). In 2021, gang-related homicide committed with a firearm represented 17% of all homicides, a larger proportion than in 2020 (14%). In 2021, gang-related homicides continued to account for about one-quarter (23%) of all homicides and marked the highest rate (0.48 per 100,000 population) recorded in Canada since comparable data were first collected in 2005.
In 2021, there were 8,047 victims of violent crime where a firearm was present, accounting for 2.6% of all victims of violent crime. The rate of firearm-related violent crime has been considerably higher in rural Northern regions of Canada (107.1 victims per 100,000 population) than the rural South (26.7) and urban areas (24.8). In 2021, the rural North experienced the highest rate of firearm-related violent crime since comparable data became available in 2009.
Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence
Since 2018, $358.8 million over five years has been allocated for theITAAGGV, with an anticipated $100 million ongoing subject to approval. The majority of funds (over $214 million) are allocated to provinces and territories (P/T) under the Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund (GGVAF) to combat gun and gang violence in communities across Canada. Partners are currently using funds to:
- Develop and deliver gun and gang violence prevention and intervention initiatives;
- Enhance law enforcement and prosecution capacity to address gun and gang violence;
- Support data gathering/reporting, and research, knowledge development and information around gun and gang violence;
- Provide training for enforcement, prevention or other professionals; and
- Support the development/refinement of strategies on gun and gang violence and the measurement of results of initiatives.
All P/Ts signed multi-year funding agreements under the GGVAF set to end in March 2023. The Treasury Board submission was approved for the ITAAGGV renewal on February 16, 2023 (announcement pending).
The Province of Ontario funded Intensive Firearm Bail Support Teams and the East Region Guns and Gangs Team to work with local police divisions to present the best available evidence to the court.
The Government also provided $125 million to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Border Services Agency to enhance firearms investigations and strengthen controls at the border to prevent illegal firearms from entering the country.
Building Safer Communities Fund
In the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, the federal government announced $250 million in funding for municipalities and Indigenous communities to implement prevention and intervention programs to reduce gun and gang violence. The $250 million initiative was approved in June 2021, and the Minister announced the program on March 16, 2022.
Recipients have been identified via an evidence-based methodology founded on two major elements: crime severity (using three indicators: firearms homicide data, mean firearms incidence, and mean organized crime data), and population data to determine a per year funding allocation.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Christina Aquilina, Policy Advisor, (343)-574-4319
Approved by: Talal Dakalbab, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, 613-852-1167
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