Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, it's good to see you here again.
With respect to this bill, I want to zero in on the drug treatment court program specifically, and generally the degree to which there are interdepartmental liaisons with Public Safety and Health.
On the mandatory minimum, we could have a debate on the efficacy of that and whether it will work, but that's really not something I want to discuss. I do want to applaud the part of the bill that gives emphasis to the drug treatment courts as a way to prevent the imposition of the mandatory minimum. I think it's a great idea, and it leads towards treatment, of course. It says to me that people with addictions, which is a health issue as well as a public safety issue, will hopefully seek to treat those addictions through the drug court situation rather than go to jail.
With the imposition of more mandatory minimums in the drug-related field, would it not lead to a concern that there will be more addicts, people with problems, in the system? You may or may not know of unfortunate cases. Certainly we had one in northern New Brunswick, where an individual overdosed with drugs he received within the institution. It is rampant in the corrections facilities of this country. We recently had a letter from the Minister of Government Services from Ontario asking about the use of medical marijuana as it relates to the Department of Health guidelines.
The question, Mr. Minister, is have you consulted with the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Health with respect to what effect this bill will have on the increasing number of addicts, people with problems, who will be in the system--the corrections system and the health system--and what effect do you think this bill will have in successfully treating people with addictions?