Mr. Speaker, just to emphasize again exactly what we are discussing and to acknowledge my colleague from Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, I will read the motion as if it were amended, so everyone is clear what is being asked today. It would read:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should immediately [study] the Canadian firearms program in order to hold a public inquiry into the reasons for the program's extraordinary cost overruns, and to submit a structured and detailed strategic plan that would have to be approved in advance by this House.
There are probably those out there who would shake their heads and ask if Parliament is starting to micromanage everything now. I ask people to look at what point Parliament has reached when we have so many people here from not the usual agreeing perspectives agreeing on one thing: that something has to be done about the mismanagement of taxpayer funds. It is to the point where we are saying that we want to see the plan because we cannot trust the government anymore. We cannot trust what is happening with taxpayer dollars. That is a fair statement.
Whether we agree on the gun registry, one thing we all agree on, and I would be shocked if there is a Liberal out there who does not agree, is what has taken place with the firearms registry and program is absolutely unconscionable. It is to the point that Canadians who adamantly supported the registry do not support it anymore because they realize the cost is too great. Part of the reason the cost is too great to them is they were promised the registry would save lives and it would get criminals off the streets.
Canadians trusted the government to follow through on all those plans and what it said it would do. What did they get? Dishonesty. Whether it was intentional or not, Canadians did not get honesty from the governing side. They see how much of their money is being spent on the registry but is it saving lives? How many more lives would have been saved if that money had been put into an organ donor registry? That is a registry that would have saved lives in our country and I would challenge anyone to say differently.