Mr. Speaker, I certainly do not question the intent of the hon. member's statement regarding the fact that money has been allocated to the integrated market enforcement team. He did not say whether it was new money or just readjusted money within the RCMP.
Anybody who has followed the RCMP over the last few years knows that they are starved for resources. We are short approximately 2,000 RCMP officers in the country today. They simply do not have the ability to do all the tasks that we ask them to do.
When we are setting up something new called an integrated market enforcement team, which includes RCMP investigators, federal lawyers, et cetera, I guess I can answer a question with a question, is it new money for this team or is it money that has been taken from somewhere else in the budget of the RCMP? What has been cut or what has been overlooked in order to do this?
If he would like to say it is brand new money, then I would say good for him. But if it is money that has been taken out of a department that is already starved for resources, for example we have heard that they are contemplating closing the forensic labs in Halifax, Regina and Edmonton, that is something we simply would not accept.
That is the kind of concern we have in terms of money going toward the agency. Is it new money out of the general overall budget or is it money that has been redirected within the existing RCMP budget?