Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My thanks also go to Mr. Tupper and Ms. Thompson for joining us.
One of the items that concerns me and that the witnesses raised in the document they have shared with us is that crime is concentrated among a small number of offenders in regions where the crime rate is high.
The region I represent is mostly on the border. There is a lot of crime, which is not always caused by members of the local community. A number of crimes are committed. For instance, the region of Stanstead has been infamous for two years because of illegal immigrants and weapons trafficking. There is also smuggling of counterfeit goods. People are quite concerned about crime prevention. What do we have to do?
We also see that there have been a lot of cuts to the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Because of that, the people are quite worried and say that it is all well and good to want to fund crime prevention efforts, but how useful will that be for their region in terms of the trafficking taking place along the border with more than 100 kilometres of forest?
That is why I think other measures would have been much more beneficial. As a result, Mr. Chair, allow me to introduce the following notice of motion:
That the Committee conduct a study into the sovereignty of all of Canada's borders. That the Committee, during this study, examine the impact of budget cuts and all delegation of authority and power at the border security level to other countries on the quality and number of Canadian jobs, on the search standards of entering people and food products and on the management of all entries into Canada, and this, with the objective of ensuring the best border security for Canadians as per Canadian standards, under Canadian control, and that the Committee report all its findings to the House of Commons.
As I said, the issue of crime is extremely tricky because the riding I represent is very rural.
So I would like to ask the following questions. What assessment tools could be used to determine whether a program or community organization is successful or not, especially in rural regions where everything is spread out and difficult to quantify? In human resources management jargon—I used to work in that sector—we talk a lot about quantitative control of programs. What parameters could help us assess the programs? Are they quantitative parameters? Could qualitative parameters also be considered as acceptable tools to use?