However long? That could be right up until my time of one o'clock, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the generosity, but I don't know if that would be shared by my colleagues.
I'll try to be brief, but there are some things I would like to address. And I appreciate the members' interest in this particular issue, and not just this, but the good work that's done by this committee on a variety of issues.
The whole question of security, as you know, and we've said it many times, is a priority for the government.
It is one of the Canadian government's priorities to have systems that guarantee the security of all its citizens from sea to sea, in the streets, in the cities, across the country. That is why an additional $1.4 billion was allocated to security in the 2006 budget.
It's clearly an area of priority. This government is committed to the safety and security of its citizens. That should be the prime goal of every government.
The $1.4 billion that was indicated in the 2006 budget--there have been additions since then--provided for resources in a number of areas. I think members here are aware and will recall that we made a commitment that there will be 1,000 more RCMP officers over the next four years, from coast to coast, in areas of federal policing. To accomplish that goal, last year in the budget there was a two-year commitment of $161 million to begin the training process, the retraining, and the building of training facilities--a depot in Regina. Again, that's a very clear commitment and a demonstration of what we want to see happen related to increased security.
On borders, which is the area of interest today, a few weeks ago I made an announcement related to enhancing our capabilities at the borders, mainly along the lines of technology. So $431 million was announced, and $390 million of that is for what we call the electronic manifest.
We're fast approaching the time when a huge portion of the truck traffic, if not all of it, will be forwarding their manifests electronically to the border stations they're approaching. Those manifests will include what is on board the truck, what is being shipped, who the driver is, who the brokers are, and who they deal with.
This demonstrates that we are focused on two areas: prosperity at the border so that business and low-risk travel can happen smoothly; and security, so we aren't allowing dangerous goods or individuals to come into the country.
When you look at what's involved at the border itself--$1.9 billion a day in trade--this is huge. The amount of trade just at the bridge from Windsor to Detroit is greater than the amount of trade that takes place between the United States and Japan. These are huge numbers. In a year, some 90 million people are checked crossing the borders, and 266,000 people a day are looked at, checked, and talked to in some way, either extensively or in a superficial fashion, related to their security risk.
