Public Safety Committee on Dec. 16th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Madame Michaud, go ahead.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Do we have a written copy of the amended motion?

I only had the first version and I have another version that may be proposed by the Conservatives. I just want to make sure that I understand what was mentioned, what has been removed and perhaps added.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Can I respond, Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Ms. Damoff, go ahead.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Madame Michaud, the third paragraph in my original motion, which begins with “That on June 21”, is how the motion begins. Then there's the wording that the Conservative Party proposed, where it said “so the amended motion would read”, and the remainder of the motion I proposed is that sentence exactly as it was proposed by the Conservative Party, so “that the committee instruct the chair”.

It's one paragraph from the original motion to give some context, and then the wording would be, “that the committee instruct the Chair to report the firearms regulations referred by the Minister of Public Safety on Monday, June 21, 2021 to the House unamended at the earliest opportunity.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Is everybody clear about the motion that's before the committee?

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a another question, if I may.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Yes, please, Madame Michaud, go ahead.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you for the clarification, Ms. Damoff.

I only have one question, on the term “unamended”, or non modifié. What does it mean? I was under the impression that you can't amend a regulation, so I wonder what that means in the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Ms. Damoff, go ahead.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

I think the word may be redundant, but in essence it's saying that the committee is taking those regulations as they were referred to us—important regulations around having a licence to purchase a firearm and also businesses recording the firearms that they're selling. The word “unamended” is probably redundant, but I don't think it hurts to have it in there.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Damoff.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Members of the committee are clear. There has been notice given for this motion.

Is there any other commentary?

Ms. Dancho, go ahead.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you very much.

I just want to extend my thanks to Ms. Damoff for neutralizing the language in this motion. We are happy to work together and to avoid personal attacks and charged language. We know that all members of this committee certainly value public safety, but we approach this issue of violence and firearms and how to solve it from very different perspectives.

I look forward to a very robust debate with my colleagues on that, but I appreciate that we are setting a tone and working together to amend this to have more neutral language so that we can move forward with that tone and ensure our discussions remain policy-oriented and professional in that regard. I will endeavour to uphold that, and committee members can hold me to that as well.

I just want to say thank you to members of the committee for agreeing to amend this so the language is more neutral.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Thank you.

That spirit of collaboration and co-operation is very much appreciated by all of us.

We have a motion. Due notice was given for that motion.

Is there unanimous consent?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

We will proceed with a recorded division.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 7; nays 4)

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Thank you very much.

Is there other committee business? Mr. Clerk, is there a hand up?

[The Clerk]

Yes. We have Mr. MacGregor, Mr. McKinnon and Mr. Noormohamed.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Chair, I just had a very quick question for you. I just wanted to have your confirmation that you're going to be re-tabling the report on systemic racism in policing tomorrow during routine proceedings.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Yes, that's my intention.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Mr. McKinnon, go ahead.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I just wasn't sure I heard the results of the vote. I assume the motion passed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I believe it passed seven to four: seven in favour and four opposed.