2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities

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Minister's Message

I am pleased to present the Department of Justice's strategic plan for 2016-17.

This Report on Plans and Priorities provides information on how the Department will support the Government in achieving our agenda in the coming year. I am fully confident that the Department is prepared to successfully support me and work with our partners inside and outside government to deliver results for Canadians. However, given our commitment to more effective reporting, this year’s report will be the final submission using the existing reporting framework.

The Prime Minister and the President of the Treasury Board are working to develop new, simplified and more effective reporting processes that will better allow Parliament and Canadians to monitor our Government’s progress on delivering real change to Canadians. In the future, the Department’s reports to Parliament will focus more transparently on how we are using our resources to fulfill our commitments and achieve results for Canadians.

These new reporting mechanisms will allow Canadians to more easily follow our Department’s progress towards delivering on our priorities, which were outlined in the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to me.

In the year ahead, Justice will lead a process to work with the provinces and territories to respond to the Supreme Court of Canada decision regarding physician-assisted dying.

In addition, it will help design an approach and mandate for an inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in Canada. It will also work to develop and design a national engagement strategy for developing and implementing a national reconciliation framework, informed by the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And it will consider increased use of restorative justice practices and other initiatives to reduce the rate of incarceration among Indigenous people.

Moreover, the Department will help create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and strict regulation of marijuana, so that we can keep it away from children and youth, and take profits out of the hands of organized crime.

Other priorities include reviewing the Government’s litigation strategy, and the changes to Canada’s criminal justice system and sentencing over the past decade to ensure that they are consistent with the Charter and Canadian values.  

I am confident that the Department can continue to serve Canadians and meet its strategic outcomes – a fair, relevant and accessible justice system; and supporting the federal government with high-quality legal services – and enable the Government of Canada to achieve the goals outlined in this report.

Gilakas'la.

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