I just want to chime in on this. I'm having some trouble understanding the logic on the government side where we have a bill here that imposes some pretty serious obligations on the provinces, which are responsible for the administration of justice. Admittedly, it does that.
We have talked about whether or not that's going to be adequately funded. That's been a topic that's come up a lot.
There seems to be no problem imposing obligations on the administration of justice within the provinces, but when it comes to measuring it, they don't want to go there. It seems to me to be completely inconsistent. You can't manage it if you don't measure it.
To say that this proposal would be difficult to enforce, I fundamentally disagree. If the provinces are going to carry out the obligations that are imposed upon them, they're going to have to receive some funding from the feds and that funding can be tied to cooperation with a reporting mechanism. It's pretty simple and workable.
I find it troubling how willing the government is to impose obligations on other levels of government, but does not require some accountability.
(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])