Justice committee  If I may, there's interest in Quebec. Justice Céline Pelletier and I have been having conversations for several years now. She would like to start a drug treatment court in Montreal. However, there has been very limited support on the part of the province until recently. My understanding is that her chief justice has given her permission to go ahead and form a committee that will do some of the preliminary investigations around starting a drug treatment court in Montreal.

Justice committee  I would say you could certainly benefit from a drug treatment court program. Generally speaking, with the type of profile you've mentioned, obviously, the individual would benefit from treatment. We've found the addition of court supervision is a very important component in this type of program that increases the likelihood of success over just treatment alone, especially when there's some criminal activity involved.

Justice committee  In terms of savings, we've had a very difficult time measuring all of the savings that drug treatment courts effect, because the people we're dealing with are already consuming many of the services that are being delivered. However, they're doing it in a rather haphazard fashion.

Justice committee  I don't want to take up too much of your time. I think Mr. Wilson has given you a fairly clear picture. What I would like to add is that our typical participants in drug treatment court programs are people who are severely marginalized individuals. They are also very expensive citizens.