Mr. Chair, the issue of gun control is not in dispute here. Conservatives support gun control. What we do not support is the long gun registry. To suggest that a police officer would rely on that registry to determine whether there was any firepower inside a house would be gross negligence on the part of that officer and the supervisor.
Imagine supervisors saying that they have checked the registry, that there is not a gun registered there and that police officers can walk right in. That is absolute foolishness. Every front line police officer who I have spoken with says the registry does not work.
We have now spent almost $2 billion on a registry that does not work. This statistic comes from the CBC. The CBC is another funded government organization. I am relying on the CBC to give me that information that it says it is $2 billion. Let us assume that the $2 billion figure is correct.
I know those members do not want to hear that. I can say that officers would like proper equipment. They would like more officers in the field. RCMP officers in my riding are working 70 and 80 hours a week. They work those hours because they do not have any replacements. Do members know that much of the time they put in is free overtime?
Let us put the money into paying our officers and getting more officers in the field, rather than this foolishness of the gun registry. That gun registry should have been gone a long time ago. Let us demonstrate that we care about our police officers by giving them backup, by giving them equipment and by paying them properly.