Oh, they seem a little sensitive about that, Mr. Speaker. I do not know, maybe it has something to do with recent history.
In any event, one of the things that we all have to be concerned about is not just the principle but also the practicality of it. One can certainly imagine what kind of cost overrun might be involved here. I do not know whether the minister is going to give us an estimate today, but I guess we would have to check the record to see how much we should multiply that estimate by in order to come up with what the real cost will be down the road.
I say this only half in jest because we do know that there was a very, very serious cost overrun when it came to the gun registry. I wanted to put that on the record, but my main point of course is the objection in principle to the idea of a national ID card and to the invasion of privacy that this would represent. It is part of a pattern in which the government has been involved since September 11, 2001. I would ask the minister to consider very seriously not just the arguments that we have made but the arguments that many other people are making about whether or not this is in fact an advisable way to proceed.