Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to you, Minister, and to your officials, for being present today on this important topic.
I want to begin by raising an urgent public safety issue on behalf of Ms. Sims, the member for Newton—North Delta, and Mr. Sandhu, the member for Surrey North. Unfortunately, because of scheduling conflicts, neither could be here this morning.
The concern is that as of May 6, there have been 25 shootings in 8 weeks in the municipality of Surrey. Residents there are asking where the federal government is on this. If I may, I will read briefly from statement by Ms. Sims. She said:
This is going to take all three levels of government working together. ...All I know is I live in a community where seniors are scared, families are scared and there isn’t any part of Surrey where people feel safe right now.
Mr. Minister, Mr. Sandhu has asked you twice in the House for commitments for federal action on this urgent crisis in Surrey, so I'm going to ask you again this morning. Do you have a timetable or will you make a commitment for meeting the request of the municipality of Surrey for more officers, more RCMP officers? Secondly, will you make a commitment today that there will be more money put into anti-gang strategies to help combat the plague of gun violence in urban areas?