Public Safety committee  I don't think those are non-policing strategies.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. That's the problem: those aren't health strategies and they're not police strategies; they're community safety strategies. That's where the discussion is and the savings are. They're the high-use folks in our system, and how we deal with them, I think, needs the collective expertise of a police officer, a social worker, a cognitive person in a correctional facility, a mental health and addictions worker, and a social worker on housing.

Public Safety committee  If I could pick areas, being a practitioner now in the current role that I'm in and having listened to some of the examples we've seen coming out of the collaborative work, I would say that we're doing fairly well on organized crime. Obviously it's something that always evolves.

Public Safety committee  Sure. That's a great question. I was in front of the committee on Bill C-10, I believe, and we support that. I think the reason we support it is that this is the balance piece. If I could change one thing in a conversation, I would change “hard on crime, arrest and incarcerate; soft on crime, prevention and intervention” to “smart on community safety”.

Public Safety committee  Yes, I have a couple of things. You make a few distinct points that I think are bang on. The thing before the research comes in is the framework to “act local”. We do have that in Canada. We have it in a few locations. The Prince Albert framework that I've given you basically has all the agencies working under one roof and setting the local priorities.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  Yes, the Hub and the COR; that's back to giving the framework to act local. I always use the analogy of a McDonald's in Canada and a McDonald's in Japan. With a franchise, basically everything is the same. The letters are the same, the cookware and the software are the same. The only thing that varies is the menu; the menu is what really gives communities the “act local”.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to sum up quickly so we have some time here. Let me as well begin by thanking each of you, the members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, for having me appear today regarding this very important study. I am also very pleased to appear with our colleagues from the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Police Boards, and the Quebec association of chiefs of police.