Thank you, Chair.
I'm happy to get some more time with these witnesses.
Before I start with questions, though, I want to echo what my colleague Ms. Hepfner was saying about Jordan. I share her concerns. It makes me absolutely sick that in Ontario, from 2016 to 2023, 580 cases have been stayed, and that 145 were sexual assault cases.
We have a Constitution in Canada and provinces are responsible for the administration of justice. This was a Supreme Court decision, which we actually relitigated, and the courts basically sent us packing, so we've been trying to work with the provinces and territories.
However, for me, in Halton, it's personal, because in 2017 a new courthouse was announced. It was to start construction in 2019 and it would have been finished in 2023. We would have had a year of this new courthouse that featured new technology to make the court run more efficiently. Instead, we're dealing with a courthouse where jurors are being interviewed in the cafeteria and judges refuse to sit because of mould and asbestos.
It is absolutely tragic that when the Province of Ontario put $29 million into the courts, the president of the Ontario Crown attorneys said that Ontario's investment doesn't even come close to what is needed. I share the concern that the witnesses have expressed about this.
I think we all do, but my question to you, Ms. Voyer, that is we have limited ability. We can't tell the provinces what to do, but would you agree with me that provinces and territories need to step up to make investments in the courts so that they can run efficiently?