Well, on the budgetary side, just within the RCMP themselves, $1.35 million out of this last budget was directed specifically to the area of training.
There are some things they have to be sensitive to. For instance, with some of the cases that my colleague has mentioned, you'll have a case where, thankfully, somebody either escapes the clutches of someone who is exploiting them or they are freed from that in some way, and one minute they're willing to testify and then later on they have great fear and concern and they may not be willing to testify. The officers need to be sensitive to a person who is a victim, who is trapped, yet is so afraid of testifying that the valuable evidence they need to go after the perpetrators becomes elusive.
That's just one aspect of the proper type of training and sensitivity that goes into not just RCMP officers, but border officers, immigration officers--the ability to encourage victims to come forward, to let them know they will be safe, that there will be protection.
Among the recommendations from this committee, recommendation 27 talks about the witness protection program. There has to be an assurance given to the potential victims that they will be protected. That's why there's a collaboration right now with Crime Stoppers across the country to continue to develop a program that has an outreach component to it, so that somebody who is a victim on the domestic side or someone who's been brought into the country will become aware that there is help for them.
That's a message we want to get out to them. And knowing that helps them to come forward with the valuable information that also helps us to go after the perpetrators.