Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Frankly, I was a bit surprised to hear Ms. Hoeppner's comments. All this amendment seeks to do is ask the government to describe the costs to Canadians three years from now as to what it took to destroy the records. What was the cost? We know there will be a cost. That's clear. It's not simply pressing a delete button. We know that's not how it works, because we're hearing from both folks within the RCMP and people who do this for a living. I'll quote one. Carleton University computer science professor Somayaji says, “If it was intermingled with other data from other backups, this is a nightmare”.
This would be a very involved process. We're asking for tabling of costs. The government has made much noise about being accountable to the taxpayer. It's all the same taxpayer.
There were two central principles when the gun registry was introduced, and of the criticisms since then, one was around cost and one was around the concept itself. Those were fair criticisms. It seems somewhat ironic, at this stage when we're asking the government to simply be accountable to the taxpayers of Canada as to how much this process will cost, that it is loath to give that information to the public. It's deja vu all over again to listen to a government say, “We're going to do something. We don't know how much it will cost, and we're not going to tell you.” That's exactly how the Liberal government talked about this registry in the first place.
There's a cost for destruction of data. My friends can shake their heads, but it's absolutely true. If anyone is under the delusion that you simply click on the computer and press “delete” and this thing is gone, that's a falsehood. Let's be honest and let's be fair to the taxpayers who send us here to take care of their money: there is a cost associated with the process that's in front of us. That's all we're suggesting. For the government to say it doesn't want to be accountable and it doesn't want to actually measure the costs of this particular initiative is categorically wrong. So let's address those same things that it was so driven to in previous governments.
I'll quote my friend, Ms. Hoeppner:
They do not really care what price has to be paid and at whose cost, they want to score a political point, and that's too bad.
That was from just last year. I agree. So let's not be here just to score political points. Let's tell people what this thing is going to cost. That's what this amendment does. I would imagine the government members would be in support of that. I'm surprised to hear they are not. I hope they change their minds in the next minute or so.