Mr. Speaker, I am always puzzled to hear those types of criticisms from the Conservative Party.
When the Conservatives formed the government, they proceeded to make the biggest cuts to our intelligence services and our police forces, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP, and border services officers. Their austerity plan included massive cuts to technical resources and staff deployed on the ground to fight smuggling or illegal gun violence. The Conservatives talk a big game, but do very little.
In contrast, without looking back to the past five years, but simply looking at the investments we made in the past year, the 2020 fall economic statement provided $250 million to target the causes of violence and prevent it upstream by investing directly in our communities. More recently, just last week in the budget, we allocated $312 million over five years to the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency to better support their efforts to fight gun violence. All of that speaks much louder than the Conservative rhetoric.