Madam Speaker, first I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague, the Solicitor General.
I rise today in response to the Canadian Alliance motion. I welcome the opportunity to address the House once again about the government's commitment to gun control, a commitment shared by a large majority of Canadians, and the government's action plan on gun control as well.
It is not a surprise that the official opposition raised this motion today. The official opposition does not support our government's gun control program and it never has. This is very serious.
When we live in a global marketplace, we must ensure that we keep building a society that reflects who we are as Canadians and what we are as a country. We will keep building a society that reflects our Canadian values. When we talk about the notion of gun control, it is about Canadian values. It is about culture. It is about ensuring that we will keep building a safe society.
When we talk about values and gun control, we are not the only country in the world to do that. There are other countries that have gun control with licensing and registration. Members opposite know that very well. I just do not understand why that opposition party keeps trying to make politics out of a serious program that is strongly supported by Canadians.
Canadians support our government's gun control program. An Environics poll taken in early January revealed that 74% of Canadians continue to support the gun control legislation. Even those who are closest to gun owners support the gun registration. As a matter of fact, 77% of respondents who live in homes where someone else, a spouse, a roommate, a parent or others, has guns support the program.
I now want to address the specific issue before us today. Essentially, there are two amounts being discussed. The first one, for $59 million, comes up in the supplementary estimates. The second amount, for $113 million, represents estimated expenditures by the firearms program during the next fiscal year.
All the hon. members of this House will remember that a request for $72 million was withdrawn last December. At the time, the minister explained that the program would operate until the end of the fiscal year at a minimal level. I confirmed this myself in the House.
Due to the approach taken at the time, this request, as we know, has now dropped to $59 million. This amount is essentially part of the $100 million allocated for this year. This is not new money.
For the next fiscal year, the main estimates include this amount under the firearms program. Canadians, and government and opposition members asked the government to show more transparency in terms of the costs associated with this program.
And it has. I confirmed, here in the House, that the program budget for the next fiscal year would be $113 million. I am sure that this amount will be carefully examined by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in its consideration of the main estimates a little later this year.
Let me turn to another matter raised in the motion. The opposition has referred to the efficiency of the program as well as the question of supporting the program. Have the Canadian people and various organizations across Canada given support to the government on gun control?
When we look at support, there is strong support from the Canadian Police Association, Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, Canadian Safety Council, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Canadian Public Health Association, Canadian Federation of University Women, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, National Association of Women and the Law, St. John's Status of Women Council, Canadian Medical Association Journal, B.C. Institute Against Family Violence, Quebec Federation of Municipal Police Officers, and I could go on.
Those organizations understand why we decided as a government, as the Liberal Party that shares Canadian values, to proceed with such an important program that gives a great contribution to our society in terms of public safety. The opposition knows this very well. There are large numbers of associations working in public safety across Canada supporting such a valid program, in both licensing and registration.
There are two important components of that important safety tool that we have as a society and that Canadians share. The opposition talks about results and efficiencies. Let us look at the statistics. As I have said many times in the House, but the opposition just does not want to understand. However, Canadians understand why we decided to implement such a program and they support the program as well.
Today, according to statistics, public officials have refused or revoked over 9,000 firearm licences. Do members know what that means? It means that the system works and it works well. It means that through the screening process that we have put in place through the gun control program we have been able to increase safety in our Canadian society. This is something that we as Liberals and the government share with Canadians.
This is why we decided to acknowledge and accept the recommendation of the Auditor General. We accepted to meet with various organizations to prepare an action plan that would ensure that we keep going and heading in the right direction in the future. We want to ensure that as a government and as a party we would have a good, sound and efficient gun control program.
There are also other statistics. We put in place a notification line so that people would be able to get in touch with the department and inform us about problems regarding questions of public safety. These are problems that could raise concerns about the firearm centres. The firearm centres have received over 26,000 calls. People are using the system.
Law enforcement agencies across Canada have accessed the online registry 2.3 million times since December 1, 1998. These are results. When we are talking about values and results in our society, the number of lost or missing firearms has declined by 68% from 1998 to 2001. Finally, another statistic, the number of stolen firearms has decreased as well by 35% over the same period of time.
When we look at the numbers, overall the opposition is talking about a billion dollars and it knows full well that we are not talking about a billion dollars. All the permanent government programs somewhere down the road will cost a billion dollars, but at the present time the opposition knows very well what the numbers are.
The opposition knows very well that we have put in place a good action plan. It knows that these programs make all the difference in our Canadian society in terms of public safety. However, all the opposition wants to do is cheap politics.
