Mr. Speaker, the member for Elmwood—Transcona has caught the point that I was trying to emphasize with regard to the irony of having this particular legislation before us today and what the government is actually doing in terms of some of its budgetary action. It is, for example, cutting back on the youth gang prevention fund, which is an anti-gang program that will be closed.
The member is quite right. There are many good ideas around the world so that we do not need to re-invent the wheel in order to make significant progress but we need to share those ideas with the government where we can.
The member made reference to auto theft. Back in, I believe, 2004, Winnipeg had somewhere in the neighbourhood of 13,000 or 14,000 vehicles being stolen. After a lot of prodding from the opposition, the government tried to come to grips with how best to deal with that.
One of the things we found out was that a relatively small number of youth, I believe less than 200, were stealing thousands of cars. A number of them got caught stealing at least 30 cars. What happened is that a program was developed that gave special attention to the high offenders.
What we really need to do is encourage and support those types of programs. We should not only bring in legislation of this nature but act on programs that will actually have an impact on crime in the streets. As I say, this particular bill will not necessarily prevent crimes from taking place.