I will attempt it.
A long time ago I used to work for the Department of Justice, and worked with cost-sharing programs in the area of justice just long enough to know that all of those cost-sharing agreements are incredibly complicated to arrive at. Something around the lines you suggested is certainly possible. It would be different, of course, because in some provinces they already have the core of a witness protection program at the provincial level, so their approach to this would be somewhat different. There are other provinces that have mostly contract policing from the RCMP, so you would be in a situation where one side of the RCMP would be cooperating with the other side of the RCMP. But I don't think any of that is insurmountable.
When I was suggesting that a national program is required and that discussions are required among the provinces and between the provinces and the federal government, I had essentially something in mind along the lines of what you're suggesting. I think it is possible to do that.
I don't think it is a suggestion to say the federal government should pay for everything and therefore just leave it all with the RCMP. I don't think this is a good move, and I'll tell you why. It's not because I don't think the RCMP would do a good job. It's not anything about the RCMP. It's really because witness protection has got to be at the heart of the responsibility of all law enforcement agencies, and that's where it becomes difficult. Protection is one of their core duties, but the running of a very extreme program of protection and relocation may not really be a core duty. It's something that is different. Everything before that--from how they take information when someone calls in to how they protect someone as that person goes to trial--these are all things the police need to do and need to continue to do.
I'm trying to be careful here not to suggest that witness protection is somebody else's problem. Witness protection is primarily a law enforcement problem. But witness relocation, new identities, all of these programs are probably better done by a separate agency.