Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the regulations under the Liberal government's ill-conceived Firearms Act will begin to take effect in this country.
Despite the lack of evidence that this government's law will reduce crime-related activity, despite the spiralling costs to establish a new bureaucracy and despite the Supreme Court of Canada challenge by four provinces and two territories, the Liberal government proceeds at full throttle. Even worse, the Liberals have insidiously spent taxpayers' dollars to surreptitiously promote the Firearms Act as a crime reduction measure when it should be better labelled “the false hope act”.
The opportunity exists for the government to step back from this costly boondoggle. As well intentioned as the legislation might be, the focus should be on real crime prevention and crime fighting initiatives, focusing on the root causes of crime, improving Canadian police investigative computer systems, implementing a DNA data bank registry and allocating more resources to front line policing. Let us put the priorities straight and stop this costly measure now.