Mr. Speaker, I recall the days when the hon. member used to speak against gun control well before he was Solicitor General. In committee and in debate he was not the rabid gun control fan that he seems to be since he became minister.
On December 5, 2002, the Progressive Conservative justice critic, the member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, saved Canadians $72 million by having that amount of money withdrawn from the estimates. I would think that because the $72 million had to be withdrawn by the government, it did not have the money in its coffers to continue to bankroll this $1 billion mistake that it has made.
Where did the government find the money to continue with the gun control registry? If it diverted money from other means, how did it meet its payroll, and how could it do that and be consistent with the comments that the Auditor General made of how it was circumventing Parliament and getting the money to begin with?