Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank you for giving us a few minutes to look at the subamendment. Given that this is more or less what was proposed in November, I cannot support it. There were many parts of the amendment submitted in November that were not easy to understand. I know that the department has done a good job with its consultations. But even if I know that the subamendment is being tabled with the best of intentions, I don't think it meets the objective of providing the clarity that we need in this clause.
I will therefore vote against the subamendment.
I want to address as well the issue of time within this committee. We accomplished one amendment in two and a half hours on Tuesday.
You know as well as I do, in terms of the math, that 145 amendments at two and a half hours each is 390 hours. I've suggested before that we need more hours per week to really engage in this issue, particularly in light of the urgency around ghost guns and the fact that law enforcement is looking for these measures.
It seems to me, if you talk about that number of hours, 390, and only four hours a week, we're talking about 90 sitting weeks. As I suggested on Tuesday, at the pace we were going we wouldn't have completed clause-by-clause until October 2024.
Given that we didn't complete that amendment at the end of the day on Tuesday, we're actually talking—surprisingly, Mr. Chair—about October 2026. It would take about three and a half years at our current pace to go through clause-by-clause on this bill. Given the importance of protecting victims of domestic abuse, ensuring that ghost guns are tackled at a time when we're seeing an exponential rise in the number of ghost guns, anecdotally, across the country.... Certainly in the United States, where they compile those statistics, we're seeing a marked increase in the number of ghost guns, which is why the Biden administration has cracked down and over 20,000 ghost guns have been seized in the past year.
This is an emergency. I agree that the government made a mistake in tabling amendments back in the fall that were not clear and have led to this delay.
I think two wrongs don't make a right. We really need to proceed with this study and get the clause-by-clause completed so that law enforcement has the tools it needs to combat criminals who are using ghost guns and untraceable weapons.
I'm hoping I get unanimous consent on this, Mr. Chair.
I would like to propose, by unanimous consent, because that's the only way it can happen, that we request an additional 20 hours of hearings next week. That would mean 24 hours of committee hearings next week to go through clause-by-clause. I don't believe we can wait years before this bill is finally adopted. We need to move forward.
I hope we will get unanimous consent in order to do that, to request an additional 20 hours of committee time next week to add to the four hours that are already scheduled.