Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It's good to see you again, Ms. McAuley.
The last time you were before our committee you presented to us on Bill C-54. The question I'm going to ask is relevant to the bill we're studying today. Your presentation included a topic called, “Most serious sentence in sexual assault cases in adult criminal courts, Canada, 2000/2001 to 2008/2009”. It showed a stark increase in custodial sentences after approximately 2005.
My understanding is that the former Liberal government had instituted a number of mandatory minimum penalties for some sexual offences around 2005 or just prior to that. I'm not sure of the exact timing. Am I correct that there was a significant increase in custodial sentences? Perhaps you could let us know what you understand the costs of those increased custodial sentences to be. Were the projected cost increases of those custodial sentences presented by the former government at the time, which introduced this legislation in Parliament?