Hon. Mobina S. B. Jaffer: Minister, thank you for being with us in the Senate of Canada. I also want to tell you that I miss you, and want to thank you for helping me with so many files on vulnerable women and children. Thank you, minister.

My question follows upon Senator Pate’s questions. The rates of incarceration of Indigenous women have skyrocketed over the past decades. Nearly half of the women in federal prisons are now Indigenous, and almost 10% are Black. Your mandate letter includes commitments to reconciliation and addressing systemic racism in the criminal legal system.

Minister, you have spoken so eloquently today on the legal system and the challenges within it. We know that one of the challenges is mandatory minimum sentences. Your government has brought forward Bill C-5 that looks at only 14 offences subject to mandatory minimum sentences. Will you give us a commitment to looking at how we can increase the number of offences exempt from mandatory minimum sentencing?

Hon. Kim Pate: Welcome, Minister Mendicino. While we recognize that Correctional Service Canada does not have control over who is sentenced to prison, correctional policies and decision making, as you know, have the power to either reinforce or help redress the current mass incarceration of those who are most marginalized.

What are your specific plans with the department to first build upon existing exchange of service agreements between provinces and territories to ensure and expand the use of transfers of prisoners with disabling mental health issues to provincial health care facilities, as authorized by section 29 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act — so that they can receive the appropriate health care and treatment they need — and second, to eradicate current policy and practical limits imposed by Corrections on sections 81 and 84 of the CCRA that legislate the transfer and conditional release of Indigenous prisoners and other marginalized prisoners to the care and custody of communities?