I think we need to take a couple of steps back and look at the big picture, and then zero in specifically on the amount you talked about.
The $2 million figure resonates in an ominous way, because that was given to us back in about 1996 as being the total cost of the entire program. Actually, at first, when the program was initiated, we were told it was going to be revenue neutral and was going to cost $2 million. I know you shared the concerns when costs skyrocketed. The recent report of the Auditor General put the costs, if you include this year's costs, at just over $1 billion.
Some improvements were made in administration over time, thankfully. The cost of running the entire program is estimated right now to be about $83 million. We have identified, through the hard work of people at the Firearms Centre, approximately $10 million in administrative savings. Now that it moves over to the RCMP, they may well come up with other cost savings, because of their former expertise in that particular area.
When you look at eliminating the long run registry itself, this was a portion of the program that was very expensive, and also unreliable, according to the Auditor General. She said that the data were not reliable.