Madam Speaker, the member for Red Deer—Lacombe, during the committee meeting, claimed that I equated hunters with the Danforth shooter, which is not what happened.
We had passed a clause unanimously, including with the support of the Conservative Party of Canada, to require a firearms licence to buy magazines. The hon. member spoke at committee to say that people travel 200 to 300 miles and pay between $5,000 and $20,000 to go on an elk hunt. If their magazine was not working, we were going to prevent them from going into town, buying a new magazine and going out to shoot that elk. Well, if they do not have their licence with them, then they are not supposed to even be using their firearm. Not only that, which I brought up to the hon. member, but Reese Fallon, who was killed on the Danforth, did not have a choice. If we had had that clause in effect, maybe that shooter would not have been able to go and get a magazine without a licence.
Conservatives like to talk about bail, but they forget to mention who is responsible for the administration of justice, and that is the province. I am going to talk about Ontario and my community of Halton region.
In 2017, a new courthouse was announced for Halton region. Construction was supposed to start in 2019, and it was supposed to be completed a year ago. Right now, the courthouse in Halton region is full of mould and asbestos. Juror interviews are being done in the cafeteria because there is no place to do the interviews. Things are not passing through those courts, and people are getting out because the court system and the province cancelled that courthouse. As soon as it was elected, the Ford government cancelled it. The provincial jails are triple-bunked, so judges do not want to send offenders to jail. We need to be working together on this, and the Province of Ontario needs to step up.
I would like to move an amendment to the amendment:
That the amendment be amended by replacing the words:
a) “Tuesday, December 17, 2024” with the words “Monday, February 24, 2025”; and
b) “Friday, February 28, 2025” with the words “Monday, March 31, 2025”.