Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that the members opposite do not know this, but Toronto Chief of Police Bill Blair pointed this out very directly a couple of years ago when the policy came across handguns that had been stolen from collectors. In fact, they would go into their homes, they would find out where the guns are collected. The gun collectors, I am sure, are properly motivated. They want to own and collect guns. They probably secure them very well. They are all registered; they are all licensed, but these people find out where the handguns are and they go in with trucks and dynamite and they rob them. These handguns are used in murders in the city of Toronto.
By banning handguns completely, unfortunately we would affect legitimate collectors, but I think it is needed because these handguns are getting into the hands of criminals through robberies.
The other part of it is that we all know that 50% of the handguns that are used in crimes in Toronto come from the United States. That is why our government set up quite an elaborate system with the integrated border enforcement teams that involve law enforcement officers in Canada and the United States. They work on cross-border issues. They try to identify firearms and drugs that might be coming into Canada at an early stage. They use intelligence based policing. Those initiatives are paying off.
To actually go ahead like the Conservative government is doing to arm the border guards at a cost of $1 billion is such a draconian waste of money. It does not even come close and pales in significance to the gun registry in the cost and misuse of taxpayers' money. We know from evidence that we heard that arming the guards at the border will not act as a deterrent. We heard this from the RCMP themselves.
If there is someone sitting in Chicago thinking of running guns or drugs up to Canada, do members think that person is actually going to sit in a little room and worry about the border guards being armed in Canada, that the person had better be careful? Come on. Let us be realistic. Of course it will not be a deterrent.
In addition, the president of the Canada Border Services Agency told us at committee, quite rightly, that the protocol will be for the border officers not to use their firearms. That is a very appropriate protocol because we do not want border guards shooting up people at our borders where there are people waiting in line and a lot of innocent people standing around.
This is a total waste of money. I know it is the American way of doing things and that is what has intrigued the government opposite to move in this direction, but it is a total waste of taxpayers' money. That money could be much better used to fight crime, to hire police officers, to build up our integrated border enforcement teams and to put more money into crime prevention programs. That is what the money should be used for.
Certainly I will not be supporting this bill. No one in the House, apart from the Conservatives, will be supporting this bill and for very good reason. The gun registry is a useful tool for police. They have told Canadians that time and again. Canadians support the gun registry. They support the handgun registry and they support the long gun registry. I will be voting against this bill.