Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the minister and officials for being here today.
We on this side of the House are very glad to see Bill C-51 before the committee.
Also, of course, we have committed to expediting its passage through the House. We believe it's important legislation. It's something we've been interested in since the time of the Air India inquiry, in which the inability to protect witnesses in national security matters became very obvious.
We are also very glad to see the definition expanded so that it might be useable in protection of witnesses to combat street gangs. We know this has been a very big concern of municipal police forces.
The provincial coordination and assistance program is very positive. I think one matter that has not received enough public attention is the additional protections to those working in the program. We know that organized crime, in an attempt to break the witness protection program, has a temptation to pick on those who administer it, so we think this is a very important provision for protecting the police who work in this program.
The parliamentary secretary has read some of my notes this morning, obviously, and has used them for her presentation. We have heard from municipal police forces that there will be some additional demand on the program if they are going to use the program to combat street gangs, which they weren't able to do before. We had one very specific instance, Chief McGrogan from Medicine Hat, who appeared before the committee and expressed his concern about costs for municipalities of witness protection programs.
I have some personal experience with this as a police board member and as a city councillor. I'm going to save the minister some time, because he usually responds to me by talking about my record as a police board member and a councillor. I'm going to save him a little time in his response on this by pointing out that when I served on the police board and as a councillor, each and every year the police received additional resources, and each and every year I supported the vote and voted for additional resources for the police. I don't know where his confusion about my record comes from, because it's a very clear public record. So I'll save him time this morning by making that response.
I really want to come back to this: the minister has said there will be no additional resources for the RCMP, and we take it in good faith that the RCMP can manage the program, but our question about resources is really at the municipal level. Municipalities face downloading in policing costs of all kinds. The parliamentary secretary made reference to the statement on the RCMP website that there sometimes is a reluctance on the part of municipal police forces to use the witness protection program because if it's for a federal prosecution they will be billed back the full costs.
I would like to have your comments on this issue, concerning resources.