Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I believe these are in the process of being circulated to committee members.
This amendment would eliminate the ability of cabinet to make exemptions to the classifications of firearms that have been established in law. We think that not only is this wrong in practice, it's probably also wrong in law, because the purpose of regulations or cabinet activities is normally to implement laws passed by Parliament, not to create exceptions to laws passed by Parliament.
In addition to the political question it raises about politicization of firearms, we think it creates a very negative precedent with regard to protecting the right of Parliament to make the basic decisions, and it is not for cabinet to create exemptions to existing pieces of law.
It goes back to one of our fundamental concerns about this bill, which is the politicization of the issue of classification of firearms.