Justice committee  Generally speaking, it's like when we investigate any crime or organized crime type of activity. Obviously, we will get a mix of citizens who are concerned and cooperative, and then again we will get some people who feel intimidated. As we know, organized crime uses scare tactics or intimidation tactics and do get to the citizens unfortunately.

Justice committee  Yes. When we have to comply with new laws, we have to set priorities. Tobacco legislation enforcement has always been a priority but we may have to readjust our resources. I am certain that the RCMP will be able to respond.

Justice committee  No, that will not change anything for us.

Justice committee  Yes, that is another advantage to this bill, given that we often work as partners in these kinds of investigations.

Justice committee  The work itself will not necessarily change. This is an additional tool that we will have. This is how the bill will be helpful for the RCMP. It will allow us to institute proceedings under the Criminal Code, including for proceeds of crime. In order to prosecute for proceeds of crime, there has to be an offence in the Criminal Code called “primary offence”.

Justice committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. First, I would like to apologize for my just-in-time arrival. Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about Bill C-10, the tackling contraband tobacco act. As director of the RCMP federal coordination centre, I oversee the RCMP's enforcement activities with respect to contraband tobacco.

Health committee  Right. Definitely in the nature of police work we certainly look at the enforcement side of things. But as I said, we do subscribe to the fact that it is not only a law enforcement issue but also a whole community issue, and everybody has a role to play in it--

Health committee  Is the RCMP is involved with the different departments...?

Health committee  I'm not sure I'm in a position to answer that question.

Health committee  No. I'm talking about illicit trafficking.

Health committee  Certainly it is a market that is of interest to organized crime. Organized crime is involved in it. We've investigated cases in which we have found organized crime to be involved. I believe that available intelligence on that would indicate that there are probably in excess of 70 different organized crime groups involved with it as well.

Health committee  There are different ways. It's much like it has been described before. It can be from theft from pharmacies. Some of them do, I guess, traffic prescription drugs, but some of them can be counterfeit prescription drugs as well, so there are different ways for them to get involved in that market.

Health committee  Not really. I'm not aware of any other program in other law enforcement that would address that. Obviously, the development of prescription drug dependency would come down to control to start with, as to the amount of what is prescribed.

Health committee  If nobody else can answer it's certainly something I can check into and get back to the committee.

Health committee  I can answer this. My colleague wants to add something to it. Certainly, we do have a strategy. When it comes to enforcement, we have enforcement strategies in place that include multi partners. We believe that addressing the problem involves not only the RCMP but is more a whole-of-government of Canada approach, all partners who would have enforcement or prevention or whatever their role in it may be.