44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2022 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, as ill-informed as it might be.
I just wanted to say, though, that for the last three elections, if he has been paying any attention at all, this side of the House has been calling for greater efforts to stop smuggling guns into Canada. All of the police chiefs and heads of police in the provinces that I just spoke of in my speech—and I know he was listening to it, because that was what he was referencing—show us that 80% to 85% of these crimes are caused by illegal guns that have been smuggled into the country, and that is where our focus should be. That is where the dollars can be spent the best to try to prevent the unconscionable street crime that we are seeing.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo for his heartfelt comments.
To address his question, I can tell him that the Calgary Police Commission provided data several years ago on guns used in gun crime. The majority of them were legally obtained. That is an important statistic for the House to know, and we need to make sure we take action on that.
Guns are smuggled across the country, as we know, and that is why our government has taken strong action in supporting CBSA to ensure that we combat smuggling with stricter penalties.
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Madam Speaker, we are currently discussing a bill that would strengthen gun control. We are prepared to study it and analyze it in committee.
However, as the Montreal police have fully shown and documented, most gun violence is committed with illegal weapons, contraband weapons.
Why is it that the government is not taking steps to stop this smuggling, despite all the pressure we have been exerting for a registry of criminal organizations and more measures at the border?
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Madam Speaker, this bill does address some of the issues on smuggling at the border that have been brought forward by my colleague.
I also want to acknowledge that in urban centres, our government has supported municipalities through the building safer communities fund by providing Canadian municipalities with $250 million for crime prevention. It is money to make sure youth in our communities, the kids who are vulnerable, do not get involved in this type of activity. I would love to work with the members across the aisle to ensure that we learn from each other to see what is working well across Canada and to make sure we support each other in our communities.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a good question. I see these as two components.
This bill seeks to freeze the legal gun market, including handguns. As far as the border is concerned, it is often a question of budget, which requires giving the departments the necessary resources to develop more effective strategies to deal with illegal firearms smuggling.
To me, these are two different components. The fact that we introduced Bill C‑21 does not stop us from giving the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency the resources they need to develop the strategies that the member for Montcalm mentioned.
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