The member across who just made this remark should know this is no laughing matter. We had all the police officers we could round up trying to enforce the law on the St. Lawrence River in a forested area at night.
This business got so lucrative during one period that they were actually crossing shipments into Canada by helicopter. It got to be that bad. We have a border between Canada and the United States four thousand miles long. One day I was raising this problem with members across who asked why the military was not brought in. Is it the position of the Reform Party, or was it at that time, to have a militarized border four thousand miles long between Canada and the United States?
I am told by people in the know that drug smugglers and others have got out of that business. There was a lot more money to be made in cigarettes. That is where the real money was. That is the situation we had.
I have a report prepared by a forensic and investigative accounting firm known as Lindquist Avey Macdonald Baskerville. That accounting firm had on its staff none other than Rod Stamler, former deputy commissioner of the RCMP, no fool by anyone's account. He described to us how severe this problem was. We had the commissioner of the RCMP give a letter to the Prime Minister which was tabled in this House that said the way to control the crime was reduced to that and only that solution.
I had been saying it to the previous government for years. The previous government would not listen. This Prime Minister, within weeks of seeing the danger to the lives of Canadians and the damage it was doing to Canadian society to see this kind of disrespect for law, took action. I congratulate him.