Madam Speaker, that does seem to be a bit of a contentious issue. I would be the first to acknowledge that this has not been a perfect system. That is why we are bringing in recommendations to address some of the concerns of the Auditor General.
Quite clearly the original proposal when we brought in gun control was predicated on the full participation of the provinces. It was also predicated on some revenues that actually were deferred and some of them were not realized. That did change the actual cost but there is no way near the amount of expenditure that the opposition would have us believe.
This is a good system. As a matter of fact, a representative of the Canadian Police Association told me that before 1995 about $30 million a year was spent on gun registry and only $10 million of that was borne by the federal government. After we brought in our legislation, that entire amount was borne federally.