Procedure and House Affairs committee  In this particular instance, no. Our dialogue with Public Safety at the outset, which occurred from late March through April, was simply on our intentions, rather than saying nothing, to post something online and strategically provide a self-identification guide, let's call it, r

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I mentioned, sometimes what the program is posting on its website may cause a reaction, a negative reaction. If we're posting a bulletin on a determination of classification around something, not only are we internally dialoguing around the clarity of the messaging and ensurin

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I was not at the level that you have suggested. As I said earlier, we were feeling the need to respond to some of the inquiries we were starting to receive via our website and we wanted to provide accurate and, hopefully, clear information on what we knew to be a particularly com

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I probably mangled in French a little earlier, the concern in not communicating on this particular issue is that some individuals may have inadvertently acquired these firearms after the June 30 date, and should the legislation pass as written, those individuals would be ineli

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would reply that it goes completely contrary to what the Canadian firearms program attempts to do. We serve our client base of 2.1 million firearms licence-holders, and confusing them is absolutely the last thing we want to do. These things tend to have a ripple effect, and mis

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can answer that question. We had some internal discussions. The first choice was to say nothing and just let the bill move forward. If the bill were to pass, we would have waited until the provisions came into force to receive calls from Canadians wishing to register their fir

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, no. It's just that my mike went off.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say no. As was probably evidenced in the first version of the website dated May 8, there was very much an intention to speak about the future state of the legislation. There are many parts of that document in which the future state of the legislation is spoken to. There w

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, certainly. As already mentioned, during the consultation period on a bill, a lot can change. That's what we saw during consultations held by the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on this bill: amendments were suggested. At the Canadian firearms prog

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. In this case, Bill C-71 had consequences, and Canadians had to be informed of the June 30 date. Our only intention was to inform them so that they could make good decisions about the firearms affected by this bill.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On our side, in the program, I would say that the more people who review a document, the better. We try to work closely with the people at the Department of Public Safety, our lawyers and our various communication teams. This would be our practice from now on.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. We invite people to submit their suggestions. There is an email address on our website that Canadians can use to write to us directly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We can find a way to make sure these suggestions are sent to your committee. Currently, we have people who check this email inbox every day and who handle requests and concerns from people on a daily basis. We're open to hearing any suggestions you may have about how to forward

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would echo what the deputy commissioner said. I can tell you from a program perspective.... First, on behalf of the program, I want to apologize to the House and to Canadians who may have been confused by the information that we put online. It certainly was not our intent. The

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. I started working for the predecessor of the current Assistant Commissioner, Ms. Strachan. So I took part in the consultations on Bill C-19. I forget at this very moment what year I started the Canadian firearms program, but I was part of the team when Bill C-42 and Bill C-7