Public Safety Committee on Feb. 1st, 2022

[Kellie Paquette]

No.

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

You need a licence to buy ammunition, but you do not need a licence to possess ammunition. Is that correct?

[Kellie Paquette]

That's correct.

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

Awesome. That's very helpful.

You mentioned these joint task forces that are working across police services on the guns and gangs issue. Are you including first nations police services in those task forces?

[D/Commr Stephen White]

We have some great partnerships with all police services and enforcement agencies across the country, but with regard to these integrated enforcement teams, they're working very well and do include indigenous police services.

I would ask Deputy Duheme to expand on that, because federal policing has some great partnerships with them on the border.

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

Thank you, Steve.

To your question, ma'am, yes, we do have good relationships with indigenous communities throughout the country. Mind you, it might vary from the others.

When we're talking about along the borders, we have a good relationship. I will give you an example in Quebec with the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service. There's an integrated team in the indigenous community that works together to deal with anything that's coming in, including contraband such as drugs, firearms or human smuggling. It is nice and quite tight-knit.

I'm excluding our American partners right now, but there's a whole net of partners working together to combat the contraband phenomenon, regardless of what's being smuggled.

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

I only have 15 seconds left.

How long has that task force been in place at Akwesasne? Do you know?

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

I would have to follow up with you on that. I'm more than happy to do that. I don't have the exact date.

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

Do you know if it's new, or if it has been around for a while? You let us know.

My time is up.

[D/Commr Michael Duheme]

It's been around for several years.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, everybody, for being so conscious of the time. I know how precious it is.

I would ask Madame Michaud to tell us what's on her mind for the next two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to pick up on what Mr. Weber was discussing earlier, but I'd like to hear the Canada Border Services Agency officials talk about how to expand the mandate of the officers.

Do you support this idea? Do you think that this could really help in the fight against firearms?

[Scott Harris]

On behalf of the CBSA, I would say that our perspective on the issue of mandates is one that would take a comprehensive response, in partnership with many people, to effectively address firearms smuggling. As was mentioned, the CBSA currently has the mandate and the authority at the port of entry. The RCMP has the mandate between the ports of entry. We work hand in hand on a daily basis to bring together our expertise in combatting this problem.

We currently have over 13 joint force operations with the RCMP, and other police or jurisdictions across the country, that are yielding results. Our approach is an intelligence-based one, so it's imperative that we work very closely with those who have mandates for Criminal Code infractions and, importantly, for organized crime in order to identify the trends that are happening, so that we can intervene as surgically as possible to deter firearms from crossing the border.

Overall, we are working closely with our partners to leverage our mandate, as well as their mandates, to the greatest effect for Canadians. That said, we continue to review our mandate. We continue to review our requirements, and we'll continue to do so as we move forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Madame Michaud, you have 30 seconds.

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

Okay. I'll ask my question now and maybe it will be answered later.

You're talking about working with the different police services. Do you feel that the partnership is sufficient at this time? Do you think that it could go beyond simply sharing information?

Maybe we aren't being told everything. However, it seems that the partnership is often limited to sharing information and intelligence. Do you think that there's room for more collaboration?

[Scott Harris]

Do you want me to answer now, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Yes, you have 10 seconds.

[Scott Harris]

We do both. We have operational collaborations and we have information-sharing collaborations. It's about applying the right tool at the right time, given what the intended goals of the collaboration are.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Thank you very much.

Mr. MacGregor, you have two and one half minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. White, I would like to just quickly continue with Ms. Damoff's line of questioning.

Regarding the verification of a licence during that transaction, can you provide a bit more detail? How is the identity verified, i.e., the date of birth, whether the licence is valid, and so on? I would like a bit more information on what the RCMP is actually doing when that request comes through.

[D/Commr Stephen White]

Yes, there is an established process for that. I'll turn to Ms. Paquette to provide a little more detail.

[Kellie Paquette]

If licence verification proceeds as written, the seller will be required to verify that the buyer has a valid licence for the non-restricted firearm prior to the sale, so they have to visually collecting that. That includes the picture, as well as the information on the licence.

Once that's confirmed, the seller will then be responsible for submitting a request to the registrar for a licence verification number. If the licence is valid, the seller will receive a verification number. The verification number will be valid for a maximum of 90 days. Therefore, if the transaction does not occur within the 90 days, the seller will be required to request an additional verification number.

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

Am I to understand the seller has to be satisfied with the visual representation? Is it up to the seller to verify that the picture on the licence matches the image of the person who's doing the buying?

[Kellie Paquette]

That's correct. That's the first check. Then once the seller is confident the buyer is the same person visually as on the licence, then they will request verification of the licence through the registrar.