Mr. Speaker, first, let me make it abundantly clear that I am absolutely, unequivocally in favour of gun control. I believe that if we want effective gun control we need to ensure that someone who commits a criminal offence with a firearm will never have a firearm again. That is gun control. If we want to effectively deal with gun control we must stop the smuggling of illegal firearms from across the border. That means putting more money back into the hands of enforcement officers.
The member from Burnaby quoted someone who said that if the registry even saved the life of one individual it would all be worth it. We are taking a billion dollars out of the security or law enforcement budget and putting it into a gun registry that is not working and will not work.
My question back to the member is, would the dollars not be better spent in more resourcing, more law enforcement officers and fighting organized crime?
Are we in favour of gun control? Yes, everyone is in favour of gun control, but is everyone in favour of a billion dollar registry that will be ineffective, that will not work, that we were guaranteed would not cost more than $80 million and which we are now in a place where it is becoming feverishly close to a billion dollars and could very well cost over $200 million a year to maintain?
Members should make no mistake about it. We want effective gun control but a registry is not doing it. All we are asking for today is a cost benefit analysis. We want the government to show us that it will work. Victims rights cannot do it, the government cannot do it and nobody in the House can show us, except perhaps the Speaker, that it is effective and it saves lives.
If we put more officers on the street and gave them more resources to fight crime I believe we will then see those lives saved. That is what we are calling for, effective use.