We're actually eager for it to come into force. I want to be clear on that. We were hoping for the adoption of Bill C‑332, but we're happy with Bill C‑16. The idea is that we don't want any unintended consequences.
We visited England. The issue that arose in England, one of the first countries to criminalize coercive control, was that the players involved received training after the offence came into force. This meant that certain players received training, starting with the police. However, the prosecutors, who weren't trained, couldn't build the cases. Everything fell apart, which left the police feeling unmotivated.
The key is to ensure that the entire chain receives training and tools. Otherwise, the players involved will be let down, as will the victims, who knock on the doors of police stations and end up receiving a poor response. The people aren't in a position to have cases that go all the way to trial. Other scenarios result in bad case law, which creates a long‑term problem.
We're also a big country. Other countries sometimes had only one national police force. In Australia, the states of New South Wales and Queensland each have their own police force and group of prosecutors. We need to think of Canada as a whole here. In Quebec, we've been lucky enough to work on coercive control with the justice system players. We're making good progress. That said, it takes time to train people and to develop tools for asking the right questions during the statement phase of the police response. Tools have been developed in Quebec, for example. We need to make sure that Canada as a whole can access this training before the bill comes into force.
In our view, the key is to avoid rushing into things and then building the plane while flying it. We really want this to proceed with proper planning and under optimum conditions in order to avoid any unintended consequences. That's why we're proposing this two‑year period. We need to give ourselves the resources to do things properly and to avoid any need to start all over again later on.