Minister, I'll follow along the same lines as my colleague Joe Comartin in talking about legal aid.
There's no doubt that there's a constant pressure. You referred to the hundred-and-some million dollars that you're currently allocating--it was $120 million, I think--to help provinces with legal aid costs, and I think you'll agree with me that because of the increasing pressures in provincial systems around legal aid, there are never enough resources in this important envelope.
Our colleague Réal Ménard talked about a mega-trial. New Brunswick is a smaller jurisdiction, and in the large prosecution going on in the Moncton area--an organized crime prosecution, actually--the legal aid certificates that were requested would have totalled $1.7 million out of the $7 million legal aid budget in New Brunswick. One trial would have eaten up a large percentage of the provincial budget. In the end, of course, they had to apply to a judge for extra help.
That pressure is not unique to my province; it's across the country, and there are increasing demands or suggestions that we should look at increasing or improving legal aid with respect to family law matters. Different women's groups have spoken to a number of us about some of the economic inequities that can take place with respect to civil legal aid.
I'm not suggesting anything in the context of a whole bunch of civil proceedings. It would be for nothing other than family law matters. An example would be an allegation of abuse or--more importantly, perhaps--a question of child custody. I'm wondering whether you, with your provincial counterparts, have any view on the possibility of improving legal aid with respect to family law matters.