Let me start by saying that I've managed people now for the better part of 15 years, and as a manager you're always concerned about how your staff are doing. You're concerned about burnout. I think in our profession there are lots of signs of burnout and mental health issues and warning signs. It's not just us; I think the law societies have done quite a good job of putting up the alert flag and trying to offer assistance.
We're fortunate in the federal government that there's a lot of assistance available to us. I think to some extent I have to rely a great deal on my regional managers, who are the day-to-day managers of our prosecutors in the regions. They really have to look for signs. They have to make sure they're telling us when they don't have the resources they need. I can tell you that we keep a very close eye, on a very regular basis, on staffing levels. I can tell you at almost any given moment where we are in any particular region. If there is a sudden departure, we're usually well aware of it. We have regular meetings with each of our regional managers.
I've not come here asking for resources, because at the moment, I think we're managing, but I certainly can tell you that I wouldn't hesitate to go to the Attorney General to discuss resources if I felt they were required.
You're right in the sense that those in the profession generally—not just us, but also judges, defence counsel, and prosecutors, federal or provincial—are feeling a lot of pressure because of Jordan. It may very well set up, at least while we're dealing with transitional cases, a bubble effect where pressure is felt throughout the system. The reality is that you have to work through it, not just one case at a time but I think one courthouse at a time. It takes a lot of collaboration between the various justice participants. I'm satisfied that there are good discussions going on between the justice participants, probably better than we've seen in many years.
Now, just to answer your general question, certainly as a manager I'm always concerned. I think you always have to be questioning whether people are okay and they have what they need. Sometimes it's not more people; it's people with the right resources. One of the problems I think we're all aware of in criminal courts is that in some ways, criminal law is still practised as if we were in the 1900s. There are still lots of people walking around with the Criminal Code in one hand and banker's boxes of files in the other. I think some of what Jordan will cause us to do, beyond just trying to manage cases on delay from the get-go, is to have real discussions with justice participants about how we evolve the manner in which we present cases so that they run more efficiently through the system.
It's not just the number of people. I think some of it is really discussing, for all of the justice participants, the tools and how we get there together.