Thank you, Chief Harel. I want to assure you that this government is listening to the advice and the sense of urgency conveyed by the CACP in that resolution.
I'd also like to take you back and canvas your experience. I know that there are people who've spent much of their professional careers in road safety and traffic enforcement. In 2008, the Government of Canada, in the second session of the 39th Parliament, passed Bill C-2, which authorized the use of drug recognition experts and the conducting of standardized field sobriety testing. That law went into effect on July 2, 2008.
About a month later, the CACP, again by resolution, noted that they had received $2 million in allocated funding for the training of DREs and standardized field sobriety testing. They also indicated in 2008 that they felt they were short by about 27,000 officers trained in standardized field sobriety testing and by about 2,600 officers trained as drug recognition experts.
My question is, in the nine years that have followed, what progress have you made with that allocated funding in ensuring that those officers were trained? I would ask you to contrast that with what we hope will be a very positive experience with the $161 million that has been allocated for the training of police officers and also to provide access to the technology you urged us to provide, to ensure that police services across Canada have the training, the technology, the authority, and the resources they need to keep our roadways safe.
Could you could tell me about your experience from 2008 to the present and perhaps talk about how we might more effectively address the priorities you've identified?