Mr. Speaker, one of the greatest responsibilities that we have as a government is to protect Canadians and ensure that those who commit crimes are held to account. Canadians deserve to feel safe in their homes and that means criminals need to be off our streets.
By moving quickly to introduce the Safe Streets and Communities Act, our government fulfilled its commitment to hold criminals fully accountable, protect families and stand up for victims of crime. As the hon. member may know, after lengthy debate and study, Bill C-10 was passed by Parliament and received royal assent on March 13, 2012.
I would like to remind my hon. colleagues exactly what Bill C-10 was.
Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, was a very targeted and specific legislation. Our experience shows that toughening sentences does not create new criminals, it just keeps the existing ones in jail for more appropriate periods of time.
A major component of the Safe Streets and Communities Act went after the source of the illicit trade, the drug traffickers.
Another major component of the Safe Streets and Communities Act went after child predators. No parent wants their child to fall prey to a pedophile. In fact, parents list abduction and sexual exploitation as two of the three concerns facing Canadian children.
The Safe Streets and Communities Act introduced two new amendments to the Criminal Code. It created new mandatory minimum penalties and increased existing ones to ensure that child sexual predators are off our streets.
The Safe Streets and Communities Act also went after criminals who were getting an easier ride by serving their sentences within the luxury of their own home by further restricting the use of conditional sentencing.
Lastly, the Safe Streets and Communities Act better protected Canadians from violent and repeat young offenders by proposing fair and appropriate measures to better handle youth crime. These measures were balanced, effective and responsible.
Canadians can be happy that the measures I have described have been adopted by Parliament. They can also rest assured that our government will continue to ensure that our streets and communities are safe and that victims receive the attention and support they rightly deserve.