Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada to take part in this debate.
Let me first congratulate the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert for her motion. For the record, I will read it into Hansard . It states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should immediately suspend application of 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.
That sounds pretty rational in light of when one looks at the mess that the whole Bill C-68 gun control legislation and program has become.
Canadians out there watching know the mess that this program is in. As has been mentioned, it pitches urban Canadians against rural Canadians. Unfortunately we know that back in 1993 the Liberals thought this was a good program because they thought they could sell the idea of registry and safety together, but unfortunately that is not the real truth. The truth is firearm use and crime are unrelated.
If this program has done anything, it has turned law-abiding citizens of this country into criminals, but not by intent. It has turned provinces against the federal government. We know that 8 out of 11 provinces have contested the Supreme Court case over this issue and still the majority of the provinces do not want to put in place any kind of a prosecution system for firearm possession charges that are laid by the RCMP.
It is ironic that today I received a phone call from a constituent telling me that last week, because the family had a break and enter on their property, the RCMP came out to investigated and accidentally found a .22 rifle unregistered and a shotgun. The RCMP took them. As it turned out, they turned to the provincial court system and the provincial court would have nothing to do with it, so it threw it back in the face of the Federal Court.
The problem with the Federal Court system today is that it is inconsistent in how it applies the law. The RCMP is telling people it will not lay charges and if it does, it will be for unsafe storage, but certainly not for possession of a gun that is unregistered. It is inconsistent. Even the Federal Court is confused today.
At this point in time, my poor constituent has to now appear before the Federal Court. As far as I know, a charge has been laid against him for possession of an unregistered firearm.
We also know that the aboriginal community and the Inuit community are totally against this. As Canadians know, firearms are part of life in the north. Aboriginal communities need firearms to secure food, sustenance for their families, so it makes absolutely no sense to apply the same laws of southern Canada to the north. We know that there is an injunction I believe in the north on the whole registry. I guess they will stop it for now.
There is absolutely no evidence that the initial intent of this legislation works. We know it does not work. It has nothing to do with the criminal use of firearms. Criminals are still using firearms. It was so ironic to hear the Privacy Commissioner when he came before the immigration committee. We were talking about national ID systems and the Privacy Commissioner said that there was no guarantee that criminals would apply for a national ID card. Similarly, it is the same scenario that criminals do not register their guns. The Liberals just do not get it. Criminals will use firearms that are stolen. In fact a study done in the late 1980s in central Canada showed that 85% of all firearms used in crimes were either smuggled or stolen. I believe this was done by the Police Association of Ontario.
Canadians are also fed up with the waste of money. We know there are huge needs in the health care system. We are spending billions of dollars. In fact we are on our second billion dollars today.
The citizenry of the country is asking when will the government stop wasting its hard earned dollars? Meanwhile, in my own riding hospitals are being closed in some communities. The communities are crying out for more health care services. Meanwhile here in Ottawa, as was mentioned earlier, we are throwing another $10 million into the pot for the gun control debacle. It sounds to me as though the federal government is plainly not listening.
There are hundreds of reasons why Bill C-68 should be suspended for the purpose of a public inquiry. The government still has not reported to Parliament what the total cost of the firearm program has been so far. We still hear the first number of $85 million. The Liberals said that it would cost $85 million to put the program in place and that it would not cost any more than that. Unfortunately, we are into our second billion dollars.
The government still has not reported to Parliament what the total cost will be to fully implement the firearms program. It is ironic because come January all of a sudden it becomes free if a person registers on the Internet. Who is paying the bill? Obviously it is the taxpayer.
Treasury Board officials finally have admitted that even they will not know the total cost of the firearm program until the fall.
The government has been hiding the truth from Parliament and the public for seven years. It has not been any more forthright in the last five years, through this past summer or as we witnessed in the House yesterday and today.
The government estimates are still grossly understated because the justice department's plans and priorities report of 2003-04 was tabled in March with 111 blanks. I thought Canada is a free country, that we have freedom of access to information legislation. The information belongs to the public. People should know how their money is spent.
The government refuses to reveal the cost of enforcement and compliance, as recommended by the Auditor General.
The government refuses to release the cost benefit analysis on the firearms program by declaring it a cabinet secret. That is easy avoidance of disclosure.
I will conclude by saying that over a half a million gun owners in Canada failed to obtain a firearms licence and cannot register their guns without one. More than 600,000 individuals still had to register or reregister their firearms before the end of June this past summer. We seem to continue with the government saying that there is no problem in registering guns and that they will take the registration. Justice department officials admitted they had received only 53,000 letters of intent to register.
The whole program is an absolute mess. Again, I close by applauding the member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert for her motion. I am sure the public cannot wait to hear more of this discussion.