It's exactly as you've stated. It is the mandate of the Quebec government to take that activity. Policing throughout the province is a responsibility of the provincial and municipal governments. That's the way our Constitution is determined. The federal government did make a one-time-only contribution under the police officers recruitment fund. There was $400 million over five years, but it was made very clear, all the participants understood, that that was initial funding over those five years for that purpose. At this time it is coming to an end.
Of course, the real issue is not simply funding police, but ensuring their work is effective. Their work is effective when the guys who are continually going through the revolving door of the justice system remain in prison. That has been the focus of our legislation: to ensure that those who deserve to be in prison remain in prison. We will continue in that respect. I believe we will see crime drop as a result of that, because the same old guys are committing the same crimes over and over again. As soon as they're back out on the street, they're committing crimes. The fact that they are no longer out on the street committing crimes has a tremendous impact on the crime rate.
So we would certainly appreciate your support for some of the other initiatives we're making in terms of mandatory minimum prison sentences for those who are involved in serious crime. That will help the police more than $400 million over five years.
Remember when the NDP said we had to put $19 billion of infrastructure in place to accommodate what Bill C-10 would do? Even my department estimated three years ago there would be 19,000 prisoners by this time, 2013, up from 14,000. I said no, that wouldn't happen. At present, we have about 15,000 prisoners, so it's up about 1,000. Essentially, we're not scooping up new people; we're just keeping the same old guys in prison so they don't get a holiday to go out and victimize more people. It's a very simple strategy.