Thank you for the question.
Again, we are concerned about animal protection and see the animal cruelty legislation as a way to help increase the conviction rates, not just the penalties, so that more animals are protected by our humane societies and our SPCAs.
As Mr. Coghill answered maybe three or four questions ago, higher penalties do not mean higher conviction rates. In fact, nothing will change except that courts, when they do finally get the odd case to them, can then use higher penalties.
Our concern is that the SPCAs, the humane societies, and the police officers be able to better use the Criminal Code of Canada, which they have stated here today is not usable to a high degree.