Mr. Speaker, as I sit here and listen to the hon. member's rationalization of this government's soft position on criminal justice and a stricter law enforcement, I have some serious questions.
The hon. member said that the party opposite, meaning us, talks about deficit reduction and yet is willing to spend more money on law enforcement issues and the hiring of more staff. This party campaigned on increased spending and criminal justice.
The member opposite has taken what was essentially a criminal problem, a problem of breaking the law. Smuggling is not a taxation problem. It is a problem where people were breaking the law. This government refused to send in the necessary police forces to control it.
This member just told us that a million dollars a day in tobacco products was coming across the border. That is a huge amount. I would suggest to this member that if they had been willing to go to the source, to the territory where that smuggling was taking place, which they were not, with the appropriate law enforcement people that that could have been curtailed.
There is no way that one can rationalize that a million dollars a day worth of tobacco products is just simply too hard to find for the police and the cost would be too great. What about the cost that is going to be incurred by the health of this country with the increase in smoking? It will increase because now the price of cigarettes is affordable.
This government has refused to take a hard stand on criminal justice and has refused to enforce the laws to take necessary action to control crime in this country. It is typical of the Liberal philosophy that no individual is responsible for crimes they commit. It is society to blame.