From the perspective of accused people, it is serious. That's why I tried to be clear in highlighting that it would not necessarily violate the charter for the reasons you explained. The charter sets the bar at five years to reflect that level of jeopardy. The reality is that there are people who are charged today with offences that are indictable, carrying statutory maximums of 10 years who have jury trials and are ultimately sentenced to less than five years.
One of the concerns I have is this kind of subtle chipping away. If we take away the preliminary inquiry and if we take away the statutory right to a jury trial, I'm very concerned about trying to give effect to the 11(b) rights of the accused in exchange for a bunch of other procedural protections. While it may be the case that no single measure violates the charter in its own right, I do have concerns about the constitutionality when taken comprehensively with abolishing the preliminary inquiry for all of these offences, along with the way we select juries and other things in their totality.