Ontario's house arrest and bail system is working well in most cases, Attorney General John Gerretsen says.

"The vast majority of the people adhere to their bail conditions and return to court when they're supposed to go back to court," Gerretsen said Tuesday. "But I think it's unreasonable to expect the police to monitor every bail condition of every individual that may be out on bail release. So I think the system is working well.

"Every now and then, a person may be involved in another activity such as what's (allegedly) happened here, and it's obviously very unfortunate," he said.

Gerretsen was responding to reports that the man charged in the Eaton Centre shooting rampage was supposed to be confined to his home on house arrest.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said police need time to conduct their investigations and determine the facts.

"It's always important in the aftermath of any kind of terrible tragedy like this that all of us -- the folks at the Eaton Centre, the police, city council, the provincial government, the federal government -- look at this and see what lessons, if any, we might draw from these circumstances," McGuinty said. "And I'm sure we're going to do that."

Tory MPP John Yakabuski said there are questions to be asked about why someone charged in a serious offence is out on the street and not in jail.

"Now we're left to pick up the pieces," he said. "Of course, there's a problem in the system and of course it needs to be looked at. If we just push this under the rug like so many have been done by this government, then nothing's going to get corrected."