Lawrence may be my neighbour in the Justice building, but I won't give him my time.
I thank all the witnesses for coming. This isn't my regular committee—I'm on the public safety committee—and I can't help but sit here and think about the study we did on the economics of policing. One of the cost drivers in that particular study was that 70% of the people who are in prisons have a mental health issue to a greater or lesser degree.
From my perspective, expenditures in this area should be seen more properly as an investment in people's well-being, and probably a saving in terms of our social and economic infrastructure as a country. But before you can make those kinds of decisions, you need data to make them on. Two witnesses' key points related to data. I think more and more Canadians recognize that the loss of the long form census was a huge, huge mistake that set the country back years in terms of making decisions. Regardless, that decision was made; hopefully it will change.
Dr. Lalonde, you mentioned the availability of statistics and the fact that the federal government holds a lot of the information related to the aboriginal community. What's the problem in terms of getting that data? They would have the data. Why can you not get it?