Mr. Speaker, I do want to touch upon judicial appointments.
Under the present minister's watch, we have seen a record number of judicial vacancies. As the member pointed out, months went by when the minister failed to appoint a single judge. The situation became so acute that former Chief Justice Neil Wittmann spoke out in the spring of 2016.
The member is quite right. The provincial government did respond by way of order in council by establishing 10 new judicial posts in October 2016.
The federal government says it is a priority to fill judicial vacancies, but it did not get around to filling one of them until a year later when my former colleague Grant Dunlop was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench.
It seems that the government's record does not match its rhetoric in taking the situation of judicial vacancies seriously.