Thank you, Mr. Leef, I appreciate the comments and the questions.
What I did want to say is that my involvement with this particular file goes beyond my experience as a federal MP and goes to the time when I was the Attorney General of Manitoba, where I told the federal government at the time that introduced this legislation, the long-gun registry, that Manitoba would not enforce this legislation and that if the federal government wanted the legislation enforced, it would be up to the federal government to do it.
At the time, Allan Rock, the minister who came to see me about that issue indicated that he would sue me if we didn't enforce the long-gun registry, and I said, “Fine, sue me.” So we're still waiting for that lawsuit, which has not occurred yet.
I would note, of course, that in Manitoba the government that succeeded our government, the NDP, have stood very firmly against the long-gun registry. They recognize that it doesn't do anything in terms of actually preventing crime, and I appreciate their support on that particular file.
As you have pointed out, there are people on both sides of the House who recognize, and will admit publicly, that this is not a measure that was effective at all. So we are simply carrying out our promise to eliminate the long-gun registry. We did that.
What bothers me about this particular regulation though is the fact that I think it's redundant. I think the legislation is clear in itself, but many store owners and gun ranges and the like are very concerned about the CFOs—who seem to be acting on some type of authority of their own, which is not supported by the Firearms Act—and they're asking for clarity. Even though we believe it is clear enough and we believe the CFOs have no authority to make these demands to collect information that would in fact recreate the long-gun registry, we agreed that we would bring in a regulation to make it absolutely clear that under the Firearms Act a CFO has no authority to link the purchase of a firearm with the licence that these individuals have to sell these firearms.
I think it's an important step. It reaffirms our commitment in this respect. We don't want it to be ambiguous, therefore we're seeking to pass this regulation.