Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be sharing my time with Ms. Dhillon.
My question goes back to some of the things we learned last week. We had Stats Canada in. It seemed to most of us on this committee that maybe there was under-reporting and that maybe we didn't have all the accurate numbers we could have in order to assist in this area federally.
After hearing all your great presentations, I am finding that the federal government's role from a lot of the departments is to fund, and it's channelled down to the provinces and different organizations.
How do we do a good job at targeting our funding and making sure that it provides the services that are needed if we don't have accurate numbers because we may have under-reporting in certain communities?
This question goes to you, Mr. Valentine. We were learning that in immigrant populations the numbers are quite low for abuse. That's what Stats Canada was telling me. I'm not sure if that's because of under-reporting or if that's truly accurate.
How can we do a better job at getting the numbers from these organizations on the numbers of people who are walking through their doors with different concerns, and having that come back to the federal government without actually initiating a case in court? Those numbers are a lot easier to obtain, but some people don't take it to that extent. They don't go to the court. They stop at counselling or a neighbour or wherever their door ends.
How do we get those numbers? How do we figure out which direction to head in, and if what we're doing is right or wrong?