Thank you for your question.
As you pointed out, having sufficient judges to deal with the number of cases handled by courts is a major issue.
I can tell you that in the relatively short time I've been Minister of Justice I have spent a good deal of time addressing this issue. In particular, one of the issues had to do with ensuring that the judicial advisory committees were properly assembled across the country. We have done that. We have cut in half the number of positions that were outstanding for replacement. Now, I'm going to come to your question about additional judges. We're hopeful that in the very near future we will fill virtually all of the vacant positions, thus addressing the number of positions that were vacant.
On the issue of new judges positions both in Alberta and the court of Quebec, I've spoken directly to the chief justices of both those provinces and to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on this subject matter. I can tell you we are undertaking to address their concerns, perhaps not fully, perhaps not to the extent that in a different fiscal time we could perhaps respond differently, but the reality is we're doing this on par across the country. We're looking at the demographics.
I spoke with the Minister of Justice in Alberta who makes a very strong case that there has been, in fact, a million new residents in Alberta in the last 10 years. That causes significant strain on the justice system, just as it would on the health care system, the social services, and other infrastructure. We're in a constant competition when it comes to the resources necessary to address that reality, but I'm very conscious of it.
I appreciate your raising that. We're going to continue to work with those provinces, in particular, to address their needs.