Mr. Chair, I have a question with regard to our criminal justice system.
I am sure my colleague is fully aware of this but for the information of the rest of the House, in British Columbia last year one in seven grow operators were convicted. The police go in, raid a place and find a grow op. Most of these grow ops are anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 operations, so they are not small. They are a very large part of organized crime. Only one in seven in British Columbia did any time at all. Only one in Calgary in my province of Alberta did any time at all. Of those who did time, 50% did less than a year.
Is the criminal very nervous about being caught? I do not think so. We as a society are saying to the criminal that it is okay to break the law, that we are not going to apply the law. We plea bargain in most of these cases.
I am wondering what my colleague thinks of minimum sentencing. When I asked the question the other day, the Minister of Justice said that it does not work. Well, what we have is not working. I wonder if my colleague would answer that.