Public Safety Committee on May 10th, 2023

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

Are you going to stop my time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

—Standing Order 18, which suggests we not reflect on past votes of the House. That applies to committees as well. I think it relates to trying to keep the focus of the committee and the proceedings we undertake here forward-looking.

Let's move forward and see if we can get this done.

Ms. Dancho, you have two minutes left.

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

I only have one, but thank you very much.

Just to make it clear, I agree with you, Mr. Chair. I would like to keep my comments to my questions, regardless of how mundane others may feel they are. I've been learning a lot, and the officials are excellent in their knowledge, but if there are further criticisms made that have nothing to do with the bill and that are, rather, criticisms of the way we're asking questions, I will take every opportunity to respond to them. Of course, that delays what we're doing here.

I would like my questions to be technical ones, Mr. Chair, and I believe that's all the time I have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. Dancho.

Ms. Damoff, go ahead.

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

I just want to clarify something so there's no misunderstanding.

Amendment G-13 is not a new clause. It was in the original bill. There have been technical briefings, and we've all had the bill for many months. Amendment G-13 is an original clause in the bill, and the only thing that has changed is adding the new offence of possession of computer data, which is something I believe was unanimously passed. It's not that this is brand new, as was implied. This clause has been amended to deal with the issue of ghost guns.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Mr. Julian, please go ahead.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to deal with a bit of misinformation.

The officials have been incredibly generous with their time, and not only at committee. In my case and in the NDP's case, they have been available to answer any questions about any of the bill's provisions or any of the amendments. A lot of work goes into preparing for committee clause-by-clause analysis.

I wanted to thank the officials for being available, basically night and day, to answer our questions. It's not true that the only chance we get to ask questions about legislation is at the committee table. A lot of time and a lot of availability have been provided by the officials, and they answered my questions, which meant I could come to this meeting prepared.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Julian.

Are there any further interventions?

Seeing none, we'll conduct a recorded vote.

(Clause 13 as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

This brings us to new clause 13.1 and G-27, which is in the name of Mr. Noormohamed.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is a simple amendment, and it should hopefully pass unanimously and without the need for a whole bunch of debate, but we shall see.

We are amending this section of the code to add the words “a firearm part” to ensure that any person who has committed a firearms-related offence related to firearm parts will need to forfeit these parts to the Crown for disposal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Is there any discussion?

Go ahead, Ms. Dancho.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just have a question for clarification, and I believe my colleague has some questions.

Are the officials available outside of committee to answer questions? That is the first I'm hearing of it. I was just not aware. Can you confirm that they are available for our questions? Mr. Julian implied that he was able to ask questions outside of committee, and I wasn't aware that was an option. Is that an option?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I pick up the phone and talk to people I need to talk to. I expect Mr. Julian does as well.

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

Do you have their phone number?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

No, not for these guys, but I'm sure I could get it if I wanted it.

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

Okay. It's just so that I'm aware moving forward. This is quite important, actually.

In this context, for any bill moving forward that you may be involved in, are you able to offer us your phone number, and would we be able to call you about questions we have?

[Rachel Mainville-Dale]

Any requests for assistance or to explain or provide technical briefings are funnelled through the minister's office. Then we will of course answer and provide any briefings.

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

Okay.

Mr. Chair, this is a bit of an issue. Last week or two weeks ago now—I'm losing track—when the minister first announced this, I asked for an additional technical briefing. That was not provided.

Is Mr. Julian being provided—

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

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

No, it was not provided. I asked very insistently at committee multiple times, and I was not provided an additional technical briefing. Now I'm hearing that Mr. Julian was. Is that the case?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I believe what you're talking about is outside the purview of the committee. I would urge you to bring that up with the department.

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

Mr. Julian brought it up, so I'm responding to something he brought up, Mr. Chair. This is news to me. I did ask for an additional technical briefing on the minister's latest announcement, which impacts this bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I expect Mr. Julian is very persistent, as we've seen.

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

So am I, Mr. Chair, but I have not gotten the same results as him. Perhaps he can share with me, offside, what his secret is, because I was denied the additional technical briefing I asked for on the record. I believe the officials were here. I believe it was last week because I was virtual.

I also asked you, Mr. Chair. My memory is coming back. I will put on the record again that I would appreciate an additional technical briefing on this, please. For the second time, I'm asking for an additional technical briefing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Once again, this is not within the purview of the committee. It's not up to the chair of the committee to grant you additional briefings. However, you are well within your scope of authority, certainly as vice-chair and as critic, to ask the department for additional information.

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

Thank you.

It was implied that I wasn't doing my homework, but others had received technical briefings that we, the Conservatives, did not have access to despite asking for them.