Neither area MP knows how they’ll vote on a bill to scrap the long-registry because of a plan to destroy data the registry has collected.
MPs Bruce Hyer (NDP, Thunder Bay-Superior North) and John Rafferty (NDP, Thunder Bay-Rainy River) have voted to kill the controversial registry in the past. But the new Bill C-19, which was announced by the Conservative government Tuesday, is different than previous ones.
Rafferty said it doesn’t seem prudent to destroy all record of the registry when some municipalities and provinces have said they want their own version of the registry. It should be up to those governments whether they want to keep long-gun records he said, adding it’s ironic that the Conservatives have always argued that the registry is wasteful but now plan to waste the data it’s collected.
“I don’t have a problem with (provinces and municipalities) doing that,” Rafferty said.
Hyer said destroying the record would be a $2 billion mistake when places like Toronto and Vancouver have shown interest in keeping a record.
“The big cities really are a concerned about this,” Hyer said.
Hyer said he’s working with other NDP MPs to suggest amendments to the bill to make it work for everyone.
“To make it something better,” he said.
That includes an idea introduced by Dennis Bevington (NDP, Western Arctic) to make the information collected by the registry available to any municipality, province or First Nations community that wants it.
Both MPs expected that the Conservatives would scrap the registry once taking power but Rafferty said he wants answers as to why there are now plans to destroy the record as well.
“I don’t know what (the Conservatives) are up to. It’s sort of a scorched earth policy,” he said.
Rafferty said he’ll be sending out a survey to get a sense of how people in the riding want him to vote.
With 87 per cent of people responding wanting him to vote to scrap the registry last time, Rafferty expects people’s minds haven’t changed.
“Hopefully I’ll hear from enough people that it will be a clear vote one way or another,” Rafferty said.
With a Conservative majority in the House, Senate and committees, Rafferty said the bill could pass as quickly as the end of November.
“Things can happen very quickly if (a majority) government wants them to,” Rafferty said.
