Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As I said in the House, we do have some problems with this bill, Mr. Chair. There are also some areas in the bill that favour, but because of our concerns, especially about the turning over to the minister of the issues of classification, we'll be voting against the bill.
We certainly favour the combining of licences; I think that does make a lot of sense. The six-month grace period in terms of the licence makes sense. And the additional training we would agree to. But much like Randall said on the ability of the minister to classify guns from non-restricted to restricted, etc., that is a huge concern. Quite honestly, I don't know why any minister would want that authority, because it's going to put a lot of political pressure on the minister from some certain interest groups.
As for what Mr. Breitkreuz mentioned a minute ago on the classic green rifle, I'll not get into it, but I do have a memo to the previous minister, Vic Toews, in which it seemed to be recommended, and there was no problem then. All of a sudden there's a problem.
I think the government and the minister are making a big issue that could have been addressed another way. As a result, now turning over so much of the authority to the minister himself, who is subject to political pressure from interest groups, is a problem. I think it would have been better to have left it with the expert committee, in addition to the RCMP.
In any event, we won't be supporting the bill, but we do recognize that there are four areas in the bill that are quite useful and helpful to law-abiding gun owners.