Thank you very much.
I've been happy to hear the direction in which we've been going in the last few minutes. I want to reassure everyone that our government does take the view that there needs to be a balanced approach. We have been putting resources toward prevention, rehabilitation, and the more punitive solutions.
In my own riding of Kitchener Centre, for example, $3.2 million was given to a coalition of local community groups not that long ago to develop a gang prevention strategy. This kind of effort is going on all across the country. I wanted to reassure everybody of that.
Having said that, I hear the message loud and clear this morning that you folks are involved in the efforts around prevention. That is an essential piece of the puzzle, so I'll extend my thanks to you also for the work you're doing.
It would help me to know, to keep it in perspective, what the dollars are. In a certain sense we can never spend enough on prevention, but in another sense there are some optimum targets. This being a fact-finding tour, I wonder if each of you feels comfortable telling me what your existing budget is, what your optimum budget would look like, and how much you think the government should, on a national basis, direct toward crime prevention for youth. I would like to get that kind of information from each of you serially.
Mr. Johnston, you're in the lucky spot at the end, if you wouldn't mind starting us off.