Mr. Speaker, with respect to the cost of the firearms program, the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough asked the minister that very question when the minister appeared before the committee on April 20 of this year.
Of course the minister, with the deepest respect, mugwumped around that question and did not give us a clear and decisive answer as to the exact amount of money that had been spent up until that time, that is, April 1 of this year. What the minister did say was that they had spent $66 million, but that also included the administration of Bill C-17. We do not know the cost of Bill C-17. Therefore, we do not know how much had been spent up until that time.
Mr. Valin, who was reported by Sean Durkan of the Ottawa Sun , claimed that we just did not ask the right question of the minister and that the total cost for this year was the figure that my hon. colleague mentioned, which is $133.9 million.
It is such a confusing mess. We do not know if this is on top of the $85 million or on top of the $20 million that the estimates are going to send out to the provinces. We just do not know.
Mr. Speaker, if you are only going to give me 90 seconds on that question, then I will have to sit down and beg my hon. colleague's pardon for not getting to his second question.