Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

As you'll recall, we had asked a number of witnesses, including the minister, whether there was information available on the number of detainments, which this bill was trying to deal with. And we had heard from witnesses that in fact there is no number right now about how many Canadian manufacturers have been convicted of importing or exporting counterfeit goods and that, on the whole, while we have estimates about the magnitude of the problem, we don't have any certainty.

In fact, when Mr. Thibeault asked Superintendent Slinn for those numbers, he said he didn't have them with him but that he'd send us a written response. You'll recall that he did send that response to the committee, and it says: The RCMP information systems do not capture or track a sufficient level of details in order to provide the number of Canadian manufacturers convicted of importing or exporting counterfeit goods.

As a result of that, we feel pretty strongly that there has to be some kind of mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of this bill and to see whether we're actually achieving what all of us around this table hope to achieve. As a result, our amendment would require an annual report to Parliament with information on detainments made under the scheme. In particular, we're looking for the number of detainments made under section 101 of the Customs Act for works or goods, and of those, the numbers that could have health and safety implications; the number of requests for assistance for copyright and trademark; the number of requests for assistance that are extended for copyright and trademark on a one-time basis, and repeatedly; and the number of inspections conducted.

I think all of us who take this issue of counterfeit goods coming into Canada seriously need to know (a) the extent of the problem, and (b) whether this bill is as effective as we all hope it will be. If not, give us the opportunity to come back and see if we can strengthen it either through better enforcement or perhaps through amendments to the bill. The only way we can do that is if we get some actual accounting of the magnitude.

Thank you, Chair.

Chris Charlton

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