Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the Chair for clarifying the Standing Orders as I had asked. I think that it goes without saying that members are free to ask for clarifications regarding the Standing Orders in order to better understand the rules and procedures of the House.
I have a question for the hon. member from the Bloc Quebecois. The member spoke about opponents and said that it is unfortunate that the federal government's mismanagement of the firearms program and the firearms registry has given ammunition to people who are ideologically opposed to the program.
Will the member from the Bloc Quebecois acknowledge here today that ideological opponents have never let go, since day one, on the issue of a real gun control program, a real, effective and efficient firearms registry, and that they have never stopped arguing against this program and the very idea of it?
Whether or not the government managed the program badly or not, ideological opponents to it would have continued to fight it, as they did even before the Auditor General's report was released. First, will the member from the Bloc Quebecois admit that?
Second, on the issue of program costs, I have in front of me—and this was tabled and discussed in the House by the Minister of Justice and by the Solicitor General—the actual program costs from 1995-96 through 2002-03, so over an eight-year period.
The total cost is $785,710,000. Therefore, if we break it down, we see that administration costs were $72.5 million; communications and public affairs cost $64,347,000; costs for the development and maintenance of the registry were $251,040,000; program delivery costs were $380,364,000; system administration, including the transition, cost $11,073,000; the costs for the national weapons enforcement support team, the total cost for this eight-year period— however, this has only existed in the last three years—is $6,382,000. The total cost then is $785,710,000. That is very clear.
I would ask the member to answer these two questions. The costs are very clear. Will the member admit that regardless of how the program has been operated in the past, or will be operated in the future, ideological opponents will continue to have the same position?