Madam Speaker, as I was saying before the break, the Auditor General of Canada advised the government to evaluate the present gun control program before moving on to any additional provisions. I quoted from the auditor general's statement.
It is also interesting to note that the Wade report indicated that police officers across the country have said that present gun control regulations are "a nearly impenetrable maze".
Instead of the federal government taking the time to see if Canada's gun laws are working, and they are already among the most stringent in the world, it has preferred to go after law-abiding people with more laws, more restrictions and more costs. If passed the legislation will result in law-abiding citizens having their legally acquired personal property subject to unprecedented scrutiny and red tape, again unmatched anywhere else in the world.
Law-abiding citizens will face criminal records unless they succumb to the legislation that will do nothing, as we all know, to reduce crime but will cost millions of dollars and will be very complex and cumbersome to administer. It appears members opposite simply do not trust people who legally own and responsibly use guns. The western provinces have taken the lead in ensuring that the government is aware of the widespread opposition across western provinces to the legislation which, as I say, simply will not work.
It is easy to support proposals that deal with the criminal use of firearms which is, after all, surely what gun control should be about. Proposing to clamp down on the smuggling of illegal weapons can be supported as can proposing stiffer penalties for
the criminal use of firearms. We should be dealing with crime as those provisions do and with crime prevention. We should be putting the millions of dollars the proposal will cost toward fighting crime in the streets.
A couple of specific provisions are worthy of note. In particular let us be reminded that all provinces and the country at large are facing extreme difficulties with regard to finance. Instead of tying up enormous police resources in a bureaucratic registration system, police officers should be on the streets dealing with crime in our communities.
I should like to close on the following two points. One is the quite remarkable arbitrary powers provided in the legislation to the Minister of Justice in section 109. The Minister of Justice clearly is of the view that provincial attorneys general will not uphold the law with regard to any legislation that is passed.
That is quite a remarkable reaction when we know that every attorney general has the legal responsibility and will carry out the law as implemented. The arbitrary extreme powers awarded to the federal minister in the legislation are completely unacceptable and should not be countenanced.
I point to one provision that raises the absurdity of the legislation. Clause 35 will make it easier for an American hunter to hunt on Canadian publicly owned land for 60 days than it will for a Canadian to do so. Surely it is absurd and surely it points to some of the major problems contained in the legislation.
I wish the minister would evaluate, as the auditor general and as the western ministers of justice have asked him to do, the proposals to see whether or not they are working effectively. If they are not working effectively and if indeed we could reduce crime and violence in the home by something similar, we could support it. However at the moment there is no evidence to suggest that and I am happy to support the amendment.