April 2015 to Present: Budget Investments implicating the PBC

Date: January 29, 2021
Classification: Unclassified
Branch / Agency: PBC

Budget 2015

NIL

NIL

Funding for implementation of An Act to provide no-cost, expedited record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis.
Funding to support operating requirements.

Funding for additional workload related to escorted temporary absences: The Board received $0.7M ongoing following Bill C-483 that amended the CCRA to grant PBC additional releasing authority on escorted temporary absences for offenders serving a sentence for murder 1 or murder 2 plus those serving life minimum (regardless of offence).
Funding to implement the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights: The PBC received $0.3M in 2015-16 and $0.1M ongoing.
The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights came into force on July 23, 2015. This legislation gives victims of crime rights to information, protection, participation and, where possible, restitution. This funding will be used to ensure that victims of crime have access to relevant information (including web-based resources), to provide training for criminal justice personnel on application of the legislation, to improve the enforcement of restitution orders and to establish or enhance provincial/territorial complaints mechanisms.

NIL

NIL

Funding to address issues in pay administration (horizontal item). $0.1M in 2018-19 only.

Funding for implementation of An Act to provide no-cost, expedited record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis: In Budget 2019 a total of $2.2M in funding over one fiscal year (2019-20) was approved by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to allow the PBC and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to implement Bill C-93, (An Act to provide no-cost, expedited record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis).
The PBC's portion of the allotted amount ($1.28M) was made available to support processing record suspension applications for simple possession of cannabis in 2019-20.
Funding to support Operational requirements. PBC received $0.4M in 2019-20 to help with financial pressures.

To address workload capacity issues: The PBC received investments of $8.4M over 2 years starting in 2020-21 to support efficient operation of PBC and to address increasing complexity associated with conditional release decision-making, due to years of legislative change and court cases that have cumulatively increased the rigor and due diligence required in case preparation and decision-making.