Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to the minister and his colleagues, many of whom I have worked with before on different occasions. I also thank the minister for the meeting that he granted me when I was the critic on his file. I have since moved on, but this file is a very important one for British Columbia, and particularly for my riding.
I have three questions, Minister, and the first is on the gun registry.
We had the former firearms chief as a witness, and also the person in charge of the Canada Firearms Centre in the Ministry of Justice was with us last week. Through the discussions we had, we came to the conclusion that the savings would be minimal. Our estimate on the outside would be less than $3 million or $4 million, which is significantly less than the $10 million you talk about. The major reason is that the long gun registry is an integrated part of the overall registry, in which the shot guns, handguns, and long guns are in one system.
Also, when I chatted with you at the table about the figures submitted today, there's no significant saving between the year 2005-06 to the year 2006-07. So I would like to ask you, Minister, is the estimation of $10 million accurate?
Because the Auditor General also said that since 2002 the firearms monitoring system has been under control, many of us in this committee feel that cancelling the long gun registry is not a smart move.
I look forward to your answer.