Mr. Speaker, with only three minutes, it puts a lot of limitations on what I can say. It is important to highlight an aspect of the legislation that I believe speaks volumes about the way in which the government approaches legislation. It is something that I have made reference to with other legislation, and that is the way in which the government determines how to name its legislation.
In naming legislation, the government's attitude seems to be more about political spin than anything. That no doubt is its first priority. It is much like how we see a government that will introduce a budget in about an hour's time. It will want to promote it by spending millions of public tax dollars to tell Canadians how wonderful its budget is, and there will be many misgivings in that budget. However, the government is more concerned about promotion, self-preservation and trying to communicate a message than it is about substance and content. This is yet another bill where we see a great example of that.
The Conservatives have titled the bill the drug-free prisons act, trying to give the impression to Canadians that they have a mechanism or a way in which they can ensure prisons across Canada are drug-free. If they consult or look in a mirror behind a closed door where no one else will see, I am sure they will find that no one could legitimately suggest that it is achievable to get prisons 100% drug free.
As it has been suggested by our correctional officers, we need to strive to do what we can to ensure we minimize the amount of drug abuse that takes place in our prisons, and I am all for that. There is some merit and value to the substance of the legislation. That is why the Liberal caucus will vote in favour of it.
However, it fails to deal with the broader issues. It does not necessarily deal with the issue of how we would prevent, for example, crimes from taking place in the first place. It does not give us any reason to believe the government has done its homework on the legislation. To what degree did it work with the provincial governments, for example, and the ministries of justice and safety in the different provinces? After all, it is a joint responsibility in the sense that it is not only Ottawa that deals with justice-related issues, but also our provinces. Yet the government, through the leadership of the Prime Minister's Office, never sees the merit in having a first ministers conference.
The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has not done his homework in terms of consultation. If he had, I suspect we would see better legislation than what we have before us.