Evidence of meeting #66 for Public Safety and National Security in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Is the concrete effect of that to say that an individual can no longer be a collector of handguns? Is that as broad as the exclusion is?
11:15 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
That's correct.
11:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Okay, and there's no exemption to the exemption, I suppose. What happens to people who are current owners of very old specimens like that? Are they no longer able to possess them, ostensibly? What's the consequence...?
11:20 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Thanks for the question.
The national handgun freeze allows individuals who currently own handguns to continue to possess, to use, their handguns, but they will no longer be able to transfer them.
11:20 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
People cannot transfer them for the purposes of collection.
11:20 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
That's correct.
11:20 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Okay.
That's all for me. I don't know whether my colleagues have other questions.
Thank you.
11:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Are there any further interventions?
Seeing no further interventions, we'll have a recorded division on clause 24, please.
(Clause 24 agreed to: yeas 7; nays 4)
(On clause 25)
Mr. Lloyd.
11:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Can the officials describe to me what the impact of clause 25 will be?
11:20 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Thank you for the question.
It would modify clause 32 of the act, which has to do with “Mail-order transfers of firearms”. These are mainly technical. It's sort of a redrafting to say essentially the same thing.
In French, we see some changes with regard to
the following passage, “sont effectuées préalablement dans un délai raisonnable”.
In other words, there are conditions to be complied with before the transfer is done by mail.
11:20 p.m.
Conservative
11:20 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
These are mainly technical changes, and the conditions would be further described in regulations.
The technical impact of that is to ensure that transfers of firearms done by mail are done according to the requirements set out in the Firearms Act and the regulations in terms of ensuring that people are licensed. That's a requirement of the Firearms Act—that people are licensed before they acquire them.
11:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
What does this mean to the average firearms owner? How is it going to change their life?
11:20 p.m.
Acting Director General, Firearms Policy, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
If they have a licence, then it will not impact them.
11:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Mr. Lloyd.
Are there any further interventions? I am seeing none.
(Clause 25 agreed to on division)
(On clause 26)
11:20 p.m.
Liberal
11:20 p.m.
Bloc
Kristina Michaud Bloc Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There were discussions behind the scenes with all the members of the other parties. As it stands now, my amendment doesn't necessarily reflect my original intent, and I'd like to consult further with officials and analysts to see how I could rework it.
When I was talking to the members of the parties, they seemed to be in favour of suspending consideration of clause 26 until tomorrow. If that's still the intention of my colleagues, I move that we suspend consideration of clause 26 and come back to this amendment and BQ‑9 and G‑43 later.
11:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
There are a number of amendments related to clause 26. We can stand a clause. We can't stand individual amendments.
Do we have unanimous consent to stand clause 26?
(Clause 26 allowed to stand)
(On clause 27)
11:25 p.m.
Conservative
11:25 p.m.
A voice
We just stood clause 26.
11:25 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Can we just pause for a second? I didn't expect us to jump ahead.
11:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Yes, there is something that's very concerning. I'd like to speak on this one.
11:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
One thing that was raised to me during our committee hearings on this was that the handgun freeze the government put in will really limit the ability of people in occupations that require carrying a handgun for security purposes, such as Brink's security drivers and apparently nuclear safety people, according to some of the amendments that the government's put forward.
Can the officials tell us what the impact of clause 27 will be regarding the authorization to carry prohibited firearms for a lawful profession or occupation?