Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to welcome you, as well, and wish you a merry Christmas.
I was very interested to hear what you had to say about the waste of time and money on the policing side. I'm glad to hear someone acknowledge that, because I spent a number of years policing, much like my colleagues on this side of the House. I'll tell you that situation you described, where two police offers sit—as I was sitting—for between five and ten hours, sometimes longer, in a hospital, only to have the patient, who is clearly exhibiting some kind of mental illness, be released because the criterion that has to be met by the psychiatrist is simply whether they are a danger immediately to themselves or others--that is very disappointing. And I feel we fail these people at that point. I strongly believe that's where the prevention Mr. Kania talks about comes in. That's one aspect of prevention that needs to be inserted at that point. We will have to work strongly with the provinces to encourage them to see about perhaps alleviating some of that wasteful time and money.
I also enjoyed what you said in your dissertation at the beginning, when you talked about developing a program similar to what you have for health care professionals. I note that you've passed out some pamphlets that refer to those all-important projects and programs that the Mental Health Commission is endeavouring to offer. I would like you to explain how you suggest we mirror these in the Correctional Service.
I understand when you talk about the anti-stigma program. Your Opening Minds program is very clear in your pamphlet, so I understand education. I don't quite get how we do the research demonstration project, the one you have for the health care professionals and the one that is being financed by the Government of Canada, where we're taking homeless people and putting them into housing and studying whether or not that has a positive impact on their receiving further relations or further treatment, as opposed to the placebo group who will not be receiving housing, and they're going to watch and see how they transition into treatment. How do you suggest we do that within a correctional facility? How do we research and do a demonstration project, as you're suggesting, within a secure facility?
I'm not sure how we do that, and I'd love to hear your suggestions on how it gets done.