Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Mr. Minister. I have a question for you about the firearms registry.
In the throne speech, it was clearly indicated that your government wanted to remove non-restricted firearms—in other words, long guns—from the firearms registry. I asked you two questions about that in the House of Commons. More or less, you said that it was expensive and pointless.
But I have received letters, accounts and calls from women's groups, victims of the École polytechnique in Montreal, Dawson College, public health officials in Quebec, police chiefs in Montreal and Toronto, the premier of Quebec and Quebec's public safety minister. They all say that the registry is important.
I want to mention something that was reported in the media. On March 15, it was reported that Mr. Blair, the Toronto police chief, was asking his fellow citizens to report anyone they knew who was in possession of unregistered firearms. He was willing to give them $500. The way I see it, a good many people want to keep the registry.
I also did some checking into the fact that, according to you, it is expensive. I looked at the numbers. On November 6, 2006, Peter Martin, Deputy Commissioner of National Police Services at the RCMP, basically said that the long gun component—which you want to get rid of—makes up approximately 20% of the total cost, which boils down to just over $2 million. In some documents, I read that it was around $3 million, according to the RCMP.
Quite frankly, I do not understand. How can you consider $3 million expensive when it is a matter of public safety?