Mr. Chair, the Minister of Justice may want to comment on the legal aid question. The sex offender registry falls under my portfolio.
As the member knows, we gained agreement with the provinces and the territories in late October or early November to move forward with a national sex offender registry and that is the way we have proceeded. We tabled it in the House in December. I believe I will be before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Thursday to talk further about the sex offender registry.
Specifically on the member's question, it will be a national registry. We believe that it will be both a prevention and investigative tool. It will be another tool for police officers. We see it as being very important for tracing where sex offenders, those who have been convicted of sex offences, may be across the country.
We are in negotiations with the province of Ontario to see if it is possible to make the legislation retroactive into our jurisdiction for the Ontario registry. We are not anticipating making the legislation retroactive nationally across the country for a number of legal reasons.