In fact, we had a brief telephone conversation, before learning that the act provides for the destruction of the registry. I think that that is causing more debate than anything else.
I would like to remind you that Mr. Paradis replied to a question put by Mr. Blaney on this topic in the House.
Mr. Christian Paradis said the following: Mr. Speaker, it is clear; we have always wanted to abolish the long gun registry, which makes criminals out of honest hunters and farmers who do not register their firearms. By decriminalizing it, it is clear that the Canadian Parliament no longer has jurisdiction. That said, if the provinces want to have a long gun registry, they have that option. The registration of goods and property is a provincial jurisdiction.
That is where we have more to say. We can see that the government is determined to abolish the Canadian gun registry and we deplore that fact. We are in a democracy, but this is a majority government and it seems to want to impose its agenda. So what can we do?
We understood at that point that we could have a decriminalized registry, as it would be a provincial registry. In other words, this would no longer give rise to criminal offences, but rather to penal offences, and this is something we'd like to see.
Last year, 9,000 firearms were taken from people who could no longer own them for valid reasons, such as a psychiatric diagnosis or something like that. The same thing can happen with motor vehicles. It is unfortunate, but sometimes people have to give up their driver's licence because of illness. For instance, people who are subject to epileptic seizures cannot drive. People who are too elderly cannot drive either, and their licences are withdrawn.
I am sure that there are people right here around this table who find it very unfortunate that their parents had to lose their driver's licences and they consider this to be dramatic. The objective is to ensure the safety of citizens, as well as that of the person who can no longer drive and does not know it.
So I think that the analogy is a sound one for firearms as well.