Full slate of vexing justice, public safety issues confront Harper government

OTTAWA – Canadians can expect to hear about new measures to track sex offenders and a victims bill of rights in the coming throne speech — the latest effort to burnish the Harper government’s crime-fighting credentials.

But several more vexing and potentially costly issues confront the public safety and justice ministers as a new session of Parliament looms.

Internal notes obtained by The Canadian Press show the ballooning cost of natural disasters, a new government emergency centre and rising expenditures on policing — despite a falling crime rate — are just a few of the challenges.

The government has promised a national public database of the names of high-risk sex offenders guilty of crimes against children, while the bill of rights is aimed at improving the experience of victims as they deal with the criminal justice system.

They’re the most recent in a long string of justice-related initiatives the Conservatives like to tout in campaign-style events aimed at securing the “tough-on-crime” political turf that has proven key to their electoral strategy.

However, the internal notes released under the Access to Information Act indicate the government is grappling with a full slate of decidedly less marketable policy issues.