Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I know that it's sometimes difficult for certain members to see the relevance of why we might want to put criminals in jail and why not doing that can lead to the exploitation of women, in particular, but it's something that we Conservatives really want to make sure we get right in our country so that we can reduce the crime we are seeing in our country—the car thefts and the home invasions. There are so many things happening that shouldn't be happening now.
As I was saying, criminals do not have to worry about going to jail, because either they just get released back out into the general population or, in the worst case, maybe they have a house arrest. What's happening now—and this is where we have to be very careful about cartels and gangs—is that gangs recognize this. They are able to go to a vulnerable youth and say, “Hey, we want you to help us commit these crimes, but don't worry; nothing can happen. You might get a record, but that's it. You won't ever go to jail. There are no consequences for your actions.”
At the same time that this is going on, we have a cost of living crisis in our country, so that same youth might be having difficulty finding a place to live, or he might be living with 10 other people in a one-bedroom apartment. That youth, then, is likely struggling to buy groceries, and so—