Mr. Chair, I am pleased there is progress being made and I hope it is substantive once we get back to the answer.
In terms of what is being spent on RCMP officers, I noticed in the estimates that the RCMP officers in terms of the population have been declining in recent years. I wonder if the government has any plans to increase the number of RCMP officers in our communities right across the country. I am not speaking only of the aboriginal communities but of the RCMP officers in general because there has been a decline in the number of officers in proportion to our population.
Why has this happened and is there a plan to turn this around? One way to prevent crime is to have more officers involved in the community.