I've been told over the years, going back to the period of time that I practised law in the early 1980s, how difficult it is in the system for the children who come forward with the allegation that they have been abused. You'd often hear stories about people who had to visit the police station, and they were visiting the crown attorney, and they had to have medical services. On all of this, people were unanimous that being involved with something like this would further hurt the child in terms of traumatizing the child. When I heard for the first time this idea that you could have a centre where all those services are brought to the child, it immediately made sense. Most people would agree, regardless of where they are on many of the issues that face us in the justice area, that this is a good idea.
In the years since, I've had a look at this. There are quite a few of these centres in the United States. Quite frankly, the U.S. is further ahead in terms of the development of these centres. It concerned me when I visited the one in St. Catharines that you want as much as possible for the funding to be there, to be available for this, because this is a good idea. They go out of their way when you go into one of these centres. You're aware of them because of our discussions. They are in fact child friendly. They make it as comfortable as possible, not just for the child but for the parent or the guardian who is there with the child. It works on every level.
I was very pleased that the federal government has gotten into this area and that we have provided money through a couple of budgets now for these centres. This is money well spent. Reaching out to the most vulnerable people in our justice system, which has to be children who have been abused, is very positive.
It is certainly my hope that right across this country people will explore this. Again it's not just a question of waiting for government funding. I've been pleased, over the years, to see private interests move forward to try to get these centres going. I've been pleased to approve feasibility studies for people looking into building one of these centres.
I remember visiting with our colleague Greg Rickford in northern Ontario. One size doesn't fit all. It doesn't necessarily have to be one building in one place. There can be adaptations of that, but the main and important concept is to make it as child friendly as possible and to do what we can to bring those services to the child. These are very important.
This is something you're going to see in this country for a long time to come. I appreciate we're only relatively recently getting into this area, but this will be a staple, this will be a component right across Canada for dealing with children who have, unfortunately, become victimized. Again it is certainly consistent with what we're saying, about doing what we can to help victims. It is one of the things we can all be very proud of.