Armed with federal data collected over more than a decade, Quebec is going to implement a registry of long guns.

Public Security Minister Pierre Moreau tabled the bill to create the registry on Thursday morning, to thundering applause in the National Assembly.

The bill would make it mandatory for all firearms in the province to be registered. The Harper government ended the federal long gun registry in 2012 but was forced by a court order to deliver the existing data to Quebec in June of this year, after the federal government rushed to destroy the information despite the legal battle to save the data.

The Liberal government will not revive the federal long-gun registry, but it will support Quebec’s plan to establish its own provincial firearms-tracking system.

“We will not recreate a federal long gun registry,” Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, told CTV News in a statement.

The cost to create the Canada Firearms Centre was estimated at more than $1 billion, which was blamed on government inefficiency and late applications by gun owners.

Nathalie Provost is a survivor of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre, an attack that killed 14 women almost 26 years ago and galvanized governments to toughen up gun laws and a create the federal long-gun registry. She was at the National Assembly Thursday when the bill was tabled.

“The gun control lobby [and what] … we are implementing right now proved to me that the memory of my classmates is not lost and I'm very proud of that,” she said.

Leery of cost overruns as Quebec creates its own registry, Premier Philippe Couillard said the program will be closely watched.

"We've made it so the cost of implementing the system will be very limited, we're being very careful with that. We estimate the cost will be between $15 and $20 million, thereafter the annual cost of operating the system is going to be quite small, said Couillard.

"The main challenge is putting the system in place at the right price, and we're going to be extremely tight on this."

The government expects it will take eight months for the legislation to be approved, and then another two years to create the database and a group to maintain the list. But some are opposed to the registry, saying it’s an invasion of privacy and the cost to create it is tough to bear.

“I think Quebecers have concerns right now that go beyond a wasteful firearms registry  that essentially is not going to save anybody life, it's not going to solve any crimes,” said Shawn Bevins, a registry opponent.

Moreau said the province is in negotiations with Ottawa to get whatever data is left so that it doesn't have to start from scratch.

The premier added he believed it would cost $5 mililon per year to operate the registry. None of that will be recouped from gun owners, since the registration of weapons will not require a fee. 

The RCMP estimates there are 1.6 million long guns in Quebec. Handguns have been subject to a federal registry since 1934.