Well, you touched on one way. First of all, the penalties will be greater if you're charged under the section concerning the theft of an automobile. That's one part of it. But you're also providing the crown attorney with the information they need in order to know who they're dealing with. If it's just theft of a general nature, they're not quite sure what they're up against. What they have told me in a number of Canadian cities that I have visited is that the people who are in the business of repeatedly stealing cars are a major problem. They threaten the communities. Quite apart from the property damage is the possibility that you might be killed by one of these individuals or you might be an innocent bystander.
We want the crown to have the information at their fingertips so they know who and what it is they're dealing with. I think this is appropriate, and I think it sends out a proper message that if you have an individual, an adult, who is repeatedly stealing cars and getting convicted of that, that the option then is open for the crown to proceed by indictment on third and subsequent convictions and get this person off the street and break up this criminal behaviour. I think it's appropriate.
Again, in answer to an earlier question, we have combined the elements of Andrew Scheer's separate auto theft bill. We've put that in with the government legislation that did not get passed in previous parliaments. So it's one complete package, and I'm urging this committee to move forward on this quickly and to get this reported to the House and get it passed.