Evidence of meeting #15 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
You do. Actually, you do. You can challenge the chair at any moment.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
I don't have a chance to challenge that because we have a Conservative majority here that's going to vote it down, so why bother?
The point is that when legislation is not working right, it's beholden on all of us who sit here in Parliament to try to make it right. The actions that have been taken here over the past number of months have not allowed these things to go ahead in a decent fashion. I don't care whether it's today, tomorrow, or the past two months, if things are amiss with the bill, they should be fixed.
Mr. Chair, that's why we're here. That's why we work as legislators, to ensure that the legislation that is passed is going to work for the principles for which it was brought forward. I see this as attitudinally completely wrong. As such, I certainly can't support this bill.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you, Mr. Bevington.
Very quickly, Mr. Harris, and then perhaps Mr. Sandhu would want to be invited back here.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Chair.
I will respect that. I won't add anything that I hadn't said before, but the RCMP evaluation of the gun registry system in Canada of February 2010 has a couple of other items that I'd like to put on the record.
They say that the proposed changes to gun laws in Canada will have a significant impact on firearm-related mortality and injury. That's an important finding.
They say that most public safety threats in Canada are through non-restricted firearms--i.e., long guns--on page 18 of their report, and we're loosening the restrictions on them, as well as getting rid of the registry.
They also say that it is estimated that approximately 3,940 lives have been saved by the licensing and registration system combined. That's an extremely high number of lives: 3,940 lives saved through the licensing and registration system. And it's estimated by the RCMP, who run the system, that the registry share of the cost of the Canadian firearms program in 2008-2009-- which was the last year they have-was between $1.1 million and $4 million only, from page 57 of their report. So when they talk about the costly and wasteful and expensive long-gun registry, the actual cost of the registry is between $1 million and $4 million.
These are the people, the RCMP, the national police force, who actually run the Canadian firearms program. That's what they say about gun control.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much, Mr. Harris.
I think that pretty well concludes the debate on clause 1.
(Clause 1 agreed to on division)
Shall the title carry?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
You want a recorded vote. All right.
(Bill C-19 agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)
Shall I report the bill to the House?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Carried on division.
All right. I want to thank you, committee, for your work on this very important bill and for honouring the timelines here.
We are going to suspend momentarily, and allow Mr. Sandhu to come in. He still has committee business.
I want to thank our legal team of experts, Ms. Fobes and Ms. Fresco. You did a remarkable job, ladies. We do appreciate your availability here to explain certain technical parts of the bill, should it have been required.
Thank you very much
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Order.
We're going to move into the last few moments of our committee today. We have some business to discuss. We do have a notice of motion that has been brought forward.
Mr. Sandhu has brought forward a motion. It has been circulated. It is in order, I believe. I'm pleased to announce that this is--
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
On a point of order, this motion is on consideration of future business. Do we typically go in camera when we're talking about future business?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
No, only by motion. This wouldn't necessarily have to be in camera.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Mr. Sandhu, if you would like to introduce this motion, I would certainly give you a brief moment to do so.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
Thank you.
I present this motion to invite the minister to appear in front of this committee so that we can consider and discuss the supplementary estimates. This is the usual practice wherein the Minister of Public Safety would come before the committee to look at the estimates.
I hope the committee will vote to have the minister come.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
We would support this request. My only concern--but it will be up to the minister's office--is that December 1 is coming pretty quickly. I'm not sure, time-wise, if he would be able to. But we certainly support the premise and the spirit of the motion.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Mr. Cullen, we wouldn't expect, in the midst of what you are all up to, that you'd want to be known as one who opposes everything.
Conservative
