Thank you, Mr. Minister, for being here.
The New Democrats also support this registry. We think it's important to protect our communities. We think helping police investigate crimes of a sexual nature is a profoundly important thing, and having a registry of known sex offenders is helpful in this regard. But I want to pick up some questions about proper policy-making.
Minister, this act came into force on December 15, 2004. Section 21.1 of the act says,The administration of this Act shall, two years after the coming into force of this Act, be reviewed by the parliamentary committee that may be designated or established by Parliament for that purpose.
It goes on to say that the committee “shall” issue a report within six months.
By my math, that means that by December 15, 2006, the two years were up. Your party was in government from 2006. Can you tell us why you didn't begin undertaking this review until April 2009?