37^th Parliament, 2^nd Session
(September 30, 2002 -     )

Edited Hansard • Number 136

Wednesday, October 8, 2003

ORAL QUESTION PERIOD

[Hansard – Page 8324]

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, real criminals are still on the loose because of cutbacks in DNA analyses at RCMP labs and yet at the same time the federal government continues to spend millions registering the guns of law-abiding citizens.

    We fully expect the minister to stand and continue his song and dance about how wonderful the registry is but this is the question: Will the minister please explain why registering firearms is a higher priority than uncovering DNA evidence that would put real criminals behind bars?

    Hon. Wayne Easter (Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it has been a little while since we heard the song and dance from that member opposite on the same old issue on which he continues to have a real problem getting his facts straight.

    If he would look at yesterday's Hansard he would see, in response to a question from the member for Crowfoot, where I talked about the forensic labs and said that we were increasing FTEs in Regina and that we were doing a better job of turnaround times.

    Those are the facts. We are doing a good job on the forensic labs as well as on gun control.