That's great. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to begin by saying that I take exception to Mr. Garrison's comments regarding Minister Toews' opening comments at the economics of policing summit. I don't know if he read the same comments that we have in front of us, but I think the minister focused quite squarely on the very broad nature—I see Mr. McFee nodding his head—of the economics of policing and the challenges. He clearly did not just focus on salaries.
As parliamentary secretary for the last almost two years, I think one of the things I have heard over and over when I talk to front-line officers and to representatives from different organizations is that Minister Toews is extremely well respected by front-line police officers as a Minister of Public Safety because he values the work they do. I think one of the reasons is that we have 11 officers, Mr. Chair, in our Conservative caucus who are front-line officers. Some are here today. I'm very proud of the fact that we have a minister who understands, respects, and values the good work the police do.
Leading into another point you made, Mr. Stamatakis, it was in regard to inefficiencies. You used an example in British Columbia of several investigative bodies that investigate police. I wanted to ask you, then, about one of the bills that we've introduced, the bill on enhancing RCMP accountability. We've introduced a measure so that when RCMP members are involved in serious incidents, we believe, just as you do, that rather than creating a brand new body to investigate them, we should use the bodies that are already in place.
In some provinces there are investigative bodies that have been created, that are working, and that do the job very well. In certain provinces, they don't have those bodies, but then they have other police, obviously, such as city police and excellent investigative bodies, which we believe could do the job of investigating serious incidents within the RCMP.
In relation to the cost of policing, would you agree that it's probably a very poor economic decision to create yet another investigative body, either provincially, as you mentioned, or even in terms of the RCMP?