The spring session of parliament is here. I think most of us in Bow River wish that spring had actually arrived with it. Eight months of snow is a lot, even by Southern Alberta standards! But the long winter hasn’t slowed down debate on Parliament Hill. As I’m sure you’ve heard, there have been some big issues discussed lately.
On March 19th, the House voted on the Canada Summer Jobs attestation policy. Unfortunately, the Liberal majority defeated our Conservative motion to reverse the policy. But I heard from a lot of you on this one. Thanks to everyone for your amazing activism. We sent a message to the Liberals loud and clear: it is wrong for any government to apply a values test to a taxpayer funded student grant program. The Liberals’ interpretation of the Charter of Rights was just plain wrong.
They may not have agreed, but they sure know where Canadians from coast to coast to coast stand– and it’s not with their Liberal ideology. My Conservative colleagues and I won’t be letting this drop. We’ll be keeping up the fight as the spring session unfolds.
The Liberals have also backed off their plan to prevent credit unions from using the word ‘banking’ in describing their services – I’m happy to see some common sense from this government for a change.
On March 20th, the government tabled Bill C-71 – the firearms Bill you may have heard about. We’re still considering this legislation to see what the overall implications might be. What we do know is that it does some things all parties agree on – improved background checks being one point there is consensus on.
However, I think we all remember when the Liberals tried to criminalize firearms owners with their two billion dollar long gun registry. It did nothing to reduce crime – the criminals are using illegal firearms anyway.
Canada’s Conservatives believe that the safety of Canadians should be the number one priority of any government. Unfortunately, this legislation has no new measures to combat gang violence in Surrey, gun violence in the GTA and escalating crime rates in our rural communities. The Liberals are using a federal registrar to keep records on law-abiding firearms owners: registrars keep registries. So what we appear to have here is a backdoor gun registry that punishes law abiding firearms owners while doing nothing to prevent actual crime.
We will continue to fight for concrete actions to keep Canadians safe and focus our efforts on the criminal element behind firearms violence, but we cannot support this Liberal Bill as it is currently drafted. I’ve already heard from many of you on this matter. I greatly appreciate all your feedback going forward as we debate this Bill in the House
In some better news that directly impacts our riding, the Bovine Tuberculosis crisis has finally concluded. All herds have now been freed from quarantine.
I will continue to keep you all up-to-date on these important issues as the spring session continues.
I can be reached in Ottawa at 613-992-0761 or martin.shields@parl.gc.ca. My Brooks office can be reached at 403-793-6775 or martin.shields.c1@parl.gc.ca, and my Strathmore office at 403-361-2980 or martin.shields.c1B@parl.gc.ca. Please don’t hesitate to contact me about any federal issue.
