Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, from the opening remarks of the Minister, I agree with town control to a degree. I am a proponent of the safe society. I like my community to be safe for my family and my friends. I would like all the communities in the territories to be safe. Basically, we are dealing with human life here, which is very important. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Ludy Pudluk, Mr. Pudlat and perhaps Mr. Minister and Mr. Whitford, started handling the stock of a firearm when it was too large for us to really suit it. We were brought up in a society whereby you learn how to handle a firearm when we were really, really young. In fact, I think most of us shot birds when we were only about eight or nine years old. Given the behaviour of the younger generation, we have to be very cautious but at the same time still respect the tradition that people live by, which is hunting.

In my community of Pelly Bay, on two occasions a polar bear came in right between the houses and luckily there was not much restriction in terms of having to lock firearms in the house. People in the community were able to act quickly, they didn't have to look for keys, they didn't have to open a padlock in order to get hold of a rifle. As a result, the polar bears, on two occasions, were disposed of before they did any harm to anybody in that community.

I think innocent people are paying the price which is induced by the people who abuse the use of a firearm. I hope that the system will be more sensitive to the needs of the native people who use a firearm for hunting and safety aspects, Mr. Chairman.

Animals such as polar bears know no boundaries. They will wander into a community instinctively in search of food. Sometimes they can be very, very dangerous. I think that putting more restrictions on the use of firearms is, in fact, going to put the lives of human beings in danger in some communities where they are frequented by animals such as polar bears. I agree with the Honourable Minister that we should try and prevent the firearms from getting into the wrong hands. I agree with that one hundred per cent, especially in the wrong situation, but I think we should really try to be sensitive to people who use their guns only for the purpose of hunting.

In most native communities, we don't have any sport hunting except from the people coming in from the outside. I would urge the honourable Minister, Mr. Chairman, and my colleagues to try to be a little more sensitive to the needs of the people in our jurisdiction, especially Dene in the western Arctic living in small communities, and Inuit people in the eastern Arctic living in small communities, who may be endangered by animals such as black bears, grizzlies, polar bears, and wolves. In the event that such animals wander into the community and all the firearms are locked up, a person may not be able to find the key or open the padlock as quickly as required. That might put the safety of the population of a community into severe danger. Mr. Chairman, I hope Mr. Minister will consider that very seriously.

In the other area of having to go for training or be tested in order to renew your firearm, I think just about every member in a small community, especially in the native population, has gone through the system already knowing how to handle rifles. What if the person is not able to pass the test required by the system but is able to handle rifles, has been handling rifles all his or her life as part of their hunting equipment? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.