Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to drill down a little bit on the remand issue—that's one trend you identified—and seek your advice on the explanation for the increasing population in remand. I can think of some reasons why we're seeing this. I could set them out and perhaps invite you to let us know which ones are identified as being behind this. My expectation is that people are spending more time in remand because we're seeing more not guilty pleas. Perhaps it's because of sentencing reform or some other reason such as an inability to meet onerous bail conditions. A backlog in matters getting to trial would lengthen remand periods. Also, as you indicated, there is the proliferation of offences related to the administration of justice, and the funding challenges within legal aid. To my mind, those would all be factors that would be relevant to remand. I invite you to respond to that.
Are there some factors that are missing? Are some more prevalent than others? I think for us to be able to address the issue of the expanding length of time that people are spending in remand, it would help to get your advice on which key factors are playing into that.