Thank you. As the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Legislation mentioned, Members of the committee may wish to make comments, and as a Member of the committee, I wish to make a few comments.

One of the concerns that was raised in the discussions at committee level regarding, not necessarily this act, but the transfer of responsibilities from Social Services to Justice, involve the people in the communities, and in the field, who are responsible for young offenders. Currently the workers, the social services workers, or parole officers, whatever their titles are for dealing with young offenders, have the responsibility, in the field, to deal with the act regarding the Young Offenders Act.

Now, with the transfer from the Minister of Social Services to the Minister of Justice, my concern is who is responsible For the workers who deal with the youths that fall under the Young Offenders Act? The Minister of Justice has no responsibilities for our social workers in the communities. I just raise this, because it is something that some of us had concerns about, it was not covered in this amendment, but I assume that it is a concern for future legislation, or the old act involving the Minister of Justice, and the involving the Department of Social Services.

Again, you have parole officers, or young offenders officers, whatever their titles are, having to report to Ministers in some cases, and I raise it as a concern.