These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
Guarantee of Funding
Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough,
PC): Mr. Speaker, last week the government was forced to withdraw its
backdoor request for an additional $72 million for the farcical firearms
fiasco. There was evidence of enormous cost overruns, blatant
mismanagement and no connection to public safety. Against that, the
justice minister has stubbornly refused to cancel this ridiculous
registry.
Examples of the government downloading the costs and cuts, and leaving the
program administration to the provinces include: legal aid, youth justice,
health care, and infrastructure.
Will the minister guarantee Canadians he will not surreptitiously sneak
more taxpayers' money into the gun registry or leave the provinces holding
the empty bag?
Hon. Martin Cauchon (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of
Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it was not a backdoor request. It was part
of the supplementary estimates which were tabled last week.
If the hon. member would read the report of the Auditor General he would
see that we were talking about numbers that were reported through Justice
Canada or other departments. What the Auditor General signaled essentially
is that she would like to have a single point of accountability. We are
working on that and we will keep proceeding with the registry because we
believe in safety.
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