We spend a lot of time worrying about the financial implications for victims of crime. I've been told it's approximately $70 billion a year that victims in this country suffer...so I'm very much motivated by bringing in legislation that might get some of these individuals off the street who repeatedly victimize people. If you're asking me with respect to detaining these individuals, I of course rely on my colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, who has assured me on numerous occasions that we can and will meet the demands on the system.
That being said, part of what we did in getting rid of the two-for-one credit.... I had every provincial attorney general, every single one of them, tell me that the two-for-one system that had been in existence in this country was clogging up provincial resources. It was costing them money in terms of people delaying, people who were looking for a discount in their sentence.
The Attorney General of British Columbia told me that he had heard of a case where the guy didn't even want to have a bail hearing. I can hardly imagine that, practising law as I did in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls: a client who didn't want to have a bail hearing. Why? Because they were racking up two-for-one credits. I was very sensitive to that, and I told provincial attorneys general that I would do my very best to get rid of that practice of two-for-one, because I had all kinds of sympathy for them. Among other things, this was clogging up provincial resources, and it was costing them money.
Again, I'm hoping you'll discover, as I'm discovering, that this has been very well received, and it will benefit everyone within the criminal justice system, including our provincial counterparts.