I want to table certain documents and request that they be made available to all members on the committee. They are documents that I obtained through access requests, and I think they're pertinent to our study on the firearms issue.
One letter is dated January 27, 2004, and another letter is dated March 3, 2004, from Mr. Baker, addressed to the associate national defence minister and the Minister of State for Civil Preparedness. I think it makes abundantly clear that the minister was briefed on what was going on in the firearms registry by the contents of the letter and the enclosures that were sent with it.
With regard to my point in filing those things, I am of the view that the political ministers had the knowledge of what was going on. I think these two documents just support that point and make it clear.
The other document that I think may have some relevance is dated January 26, 2004. It's from the associate defence minister, and it's addressed to Commissioner Baker. It would probably be directed toward the $15 million sum and how that should be dealt with.
I draw your attention to the third paragraph from the bottom, where the associate defence minister says: “Also the 'registry operations' line item increases notably in the next fiscal year. Are there ways to mitigate this increase available.” Although it doesn't really direct itself to one or two, it does direct itself to the $15 million item. It seems to be sort of a suggestion from a political minister to Commissioner Baker that maybe something should be done to mitigate that item.
So I just want to table and make those available to all members of the committee so that we have those bits of information in hand when completing our report.