Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I will be sharing my time with Mr. McColeman.
I only have one supplemental question for Assistant Commissioner Sweeney, and it was in response to a question Ms Mourani asked you about the long-gun registry.
I appreciate a couple of things. I appreciate that you were providing a personal opinion and not necessarily the opinion of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
I look at the estimates for 2010-2011 and a couple of line items here: $56 million for firearms licensing and supporting infrastructure, and a further $22 million for firearms registration. Again, I appreciate that there is no suggestion that hand-guns are not going to be registered, and there's certainly no suggestion that the licensing issue is going to be dismantled.
My question nonetheless is, in an era of finite and sometimes scarce resources, could whatever portion of that $78 million that is going to be saved should the long-gun registry be dismantled...in your view, could those scarce resources not be better deployed to promote what you said in your own words, officer safety and public safety?