Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting the representatives from the RCMP.
You confirm a sense I have had since the last meeting. Without wishing to downplay the impact of human trafficking, it is important for parliamentarians to have an idea of the scale of the activity that they want to prohibit before they take a position on a bill.
Could you explain something to me? Ms. Smith circulated documents in which two figures were mentioned. I read that 15,000 people in Canada may be trafficking victims, at a rate of about 2,000 per year. I am trying to understand where those figures come from.
You are responsible for law enforcement and yet you are not able to get numbers like that. It does not matter that the bill sets mandatory minimum sentences, it does matter to me that charges are laid. If 2,000 people in Canada are victims of trafficking, I hope that the traffickers are going to be hauled into court and sentenced to anything up to life imprisonment. It is not a question of a minimum sentence.
Why do we not have details? Does it seem plausible to you that 2,000 people are victims of trafficking in Canada each year? Why are there no charges? Are we unable to identify these people? What tools do you need to bring these people to court? That is what matters to me.