38th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION

(October 4, 2004 - )

Edited Hansard • Number 104

Monday, May 30, 2005

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if Question Nos. 132, 134, 135, 136 and 137 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.

[Hansard Page 6344]

Question No. 137--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz: For each year since the government started keeping records: (a) how many firearms were imported into Canada; and (b) how many firearms were exported out of Canada?

(Return tabled)

SESSIONAL PAPER TABLED WITH JOURNALS BRANCH
TRANSCRIBED BY GARRY BREITKREUZ’S OFFICE

REPLY BY THE MINISTER OF INDUSTRY D.L. EMERSON

The data are presented in two tables attached. The data pan a period of 39 years (1966-2004). The data series on firearms are reasonable consistent over time.

In general, the data refer to ‘firearms’ as defined by the trade classifications and do not necessarily conform to any definitions such as those of the Criminal Code. It includes items such as revolvers, pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc., which may be military or non-military. It also includes air or spring loaded weapons. In Table 2, quantity information for exports of military weapons for the period 1966 to 1987 is not available. In a similar fashion, in Table 1, quantity information for imports of military weapons is not available for the years 1966 to 1975. Large military ordinance such as cannons, torpedoes, etc., have been excluded from the data presented for all years for both imports and exports.

Note that the export data (Table 2) show both domestic exports (goods of Canadian origin) as well as re-exports (goods of foreign origin exported from Canada).

TABLES 1 & 2
STATISTICS CANADA – IMPORTS & EXPORTS OF FIREARMS 1966-2004

http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/2005_FirearmsImportExport_1966_2004.xls