Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. I don't think they're waiting at all. I talked about what happened in Mississauga. They were ready and they did extremely well. I talked about what happened in Gander, and they handled it extremely well. I'm only suggesting that the capacity is strai

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you to all members of the committee. It was a good discussion. Obviously we're trying to find a path. It's not the easiest path on occasion, but I want to thank Mr. MacKenzie for recognizing the realities that we face. I think he was sensitive to our ef

Public Safety committee  The levees were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and they were fully aware that they were not necessarily secure. I'm not aware that the City of New Orleans is taking any action on that matter. From their general behaviour, I would suggest or think they are not. I agr

Public Safety committee  There is a heavy reliance on local police for border security, and frankly they're not particularly well equipped to do it. This is for us a whole other important discussion, certainly related to this legislation, but related to other issues as well.

Public Safety committee  I should say on border issues that there is another important discussion going on concerning border infrastructure. We had that discussion with the Minister of Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities about investing in our border infrastructure, which is clearly inadequate

Public Safety committee  I think so. These things happen suddenly and they have to be dealt with immediately. There's no sense waiting for the army, because that would take too long. I wasn't being negative at all about the federal contribution there. I was just saying that the reality is that when these

Public Safety committee  Yes, it's the way it should be.

Public Safety committee  I think we have to be aware, as I said a moment ago, that municipal governments have a very limited ability to invest in this area. What will be the future threats of terrorism, and will municipal police forces be adequate to deal with them? It seems that they did a reasonable

Public Safety committee  I don't disagree. Quebec is very well organized. It's had some very tough experiences. These have been studied, lessons have been learned, and effective things have been done. Obviously, we have greatly different capacities in different parts of the country. Some provinces don'

Public Safety committee  Mr. Burrett will comment on that opportunity.

Public Safety committee  On the question about resources, this area is the fastest-growing municipal expenditure. It's ahead of any other areas. It's currently 17% of our budget, but it's growing exponentially because there are so many new dimensions to this problem. Safety includes the terrorism threa

Public Safety committee  With respect to your first question, as to whether it's better, the answer is yes, it's better. I said at the outset that there's a clarity of the role of the federal minister that wasn't there before. It's more comprehensive. It is empowering. We view this as a positive step.

Public Safety committee  If you would allow me--

Public Safety committee  No, not at all, in fact I agree. Quebec is certainly very advanced in this area.

Public Safety committee  If there was a misunderstanding, I want to say that in my world view, The MRCs (regional municipalities) are municipalities We look at an MRC as a municipality. We view the metropolitan community of Montreal as a municipal institution. In our view of the world, these are all m