Mr. Speaker, since we were elected in 2006, our Conservative government has consistently stood up for victims of crime and we have introduced measures to protect communities and families.
Every step of the way the opposition and the so-called experts said that there would be a tremendous surge of new inmates in prisons. That simply has not materialized.
The member for Burnaby—New Westminster has stated numerous times that our government is spending too much time locking up dangerous criminals, even quoting discredited radical left-wing organizations that have estimated outrageous cost figures, all of which have been unfounded. He even goes so far as to use despicable scare tactics to say that we are cutting programs for seniors to pay for new prisons, prisons which do not even exist.
I would note that our annual budget for corrections is a mere 8% of what is spent on old age security on an annual basis. Both of those figures, however, are dwarfed by the cost of $100 billion. That is the cost for law-abiding victims of crime who have to pay that price every year.