Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to follow the hon. member for Charlesbourg. I take this opportunity to welcome the new solicitor general to his new post. He is, like myself, an islander. He comes from perhaps a more gentle island, a little less rugged than my own, but from parts of my island we can look across the channel and see his island. That is as nice as I will be.
I will move now to address some of the comments he made today in his report. First I suggest that he wants to build upon the last report which came before the House a year ago. It will be tough going because there is very little foundation to build upon.
In the last year the commitments made by the previous solicitor general to combat organized crime have not come to any kind of fruition. Indeed, all we have heard is another statement of what they hope to do.
I will read the definition of organized crime from the government's own document. It includes economically motivated illicit activity undertaken by any group, association or other body consisting of two or more individuals. It is beginning to sound like we might include leaked documents in this definition, given the point of order today. The definition also includes, as I have suggested, formally or informally organized, negative impact of said activity, and so on.
The types of organized crime that take place in Canada would be shocking to Canadians. It includes money laundering. It includes the sale of illegal drugs. It includes, which I think is particularly shocking especially to the generation following us, environmental crime and the way hazardous waste is either sold or hidden in the country. It includes contraband, economic crime, fraud, migrant trafficking and motor vehicle theft. The cost of these activities is in the billions of dollars. The cost to the health of Canadians, particularly young Canadians, of the illicit drug trade is staggering.
There is a statement from the government's document on the organized crime impact study which deals with the seizures of illicit drugs and the increase in the use of crack among adolescents, which has gone from 0.5% in 1993, the year when I believe that party took power, to 1.9% in 1995. There has been a gradual increase in the use of illicit drugs.
These types of activities require urgent action.
At the same time that we have this report and the government talks about the need to combat organized crime, we have seen the downsizing of the RCMP. We have seen the training centre in Regina suffer from funding cuts. We have seen RCMP offices in British Columbia suffer from funding cuts.
We in the New Democratic Party call upon the government to reinvest in the necessary policing forces if we are going to actually be tough on crime in this country.
I welcome the statement of the solicitor general. I look forward to working with him in a constructive way to combat organized crime in this country.