Thanks a lot, Chair.
I think everybody here—the witnesses and all members of this committee—agrees that what's happening is not working. The level of femicide is atrocious. I was on this committee for four years when I first got elected, and we're still talking about it. One of the things we recommended early on, as a committee, was a national action plan. We didn't think we were going to get it. Marc Serré might have been on the committee with me at the time. We now have $500 million invested in that national action plan, but the problem is huge.
I have a request for our analysts, if I may, because a number of things have come up.
Look, I don't want to point fingers at federal, provincial or municipal.... Municipal is responsible for police services that don't act properly, either. We need to make sure everybody is doing everything they possibly can. The National Police Federation has said, “In much of Canada, especially in Ontario, it is Justices of the Peace...who are Order-in-Council appointments, but usually have no legal practice experience as a lawyer or law degree, who preside over almost all bail hearings in much of Canada.” Those are provincial appointments. In my region of Halton, the government cancelled the new jail. Do you know what's happening? Judges won't sit in Halton Region, because there's mould. When you talk about Jordan's rule.... The province hasn't built a courthouse in Halton. It's crumbling, and people are being released. Trust me, I think it's horrific that this is happening and that provincial jails are triple-bunked so judges won't send them to provincial jails. We all need to take responsibility for this.
There are a couple of things I would ask the analysts. Could they do a division of who is responsible for what in the criminal justice system? Also, there's a StatsCan report called “Average counts of adults in provincial and territorial correctional programs” that shows, year by year, the number of people who are held and the alternative—who is released on bail. I went back and looked at those numbers. In 2010-11, 59% of people were being held on bail. Today, it's 80%. The stats don't correspond to what's happening in the justice system.
I forgot to put my timer on, Chair. I'm sorry. I got so emotional there.