Hello Mr. Fraser;
Congratulations on your re-election. As your constituent I thought I would touch base with you on this issue.
While we have never discussed the ownership of firearms by licensed Canadians, I am a lifelong licensed firearms owner, hunter and sport shooter. I am hopeful that you will make Premier Ford aware that the wait times for Ontario's CFO to complete the transfer of a restricted firearm, are completely unacceptable.
The CFO's in other provinces are completing these transfers in a couple days or weeks, whereas the CFO in Ontario is taking more than 3 months. This is as a result of the ON CFO being understaffed, with only 2 employees completing these transfers for the almost 40% of Canadians who chose live and work in this province.
I think you would agree, regardless of where they live, Canadians should have access to comparable government services. In order to improve the CFO's service standard, they should hire more staff OR, they could complete transfers in batches. Let me explain. Currently, transfers are reviewed & approved in the order they are received. With the announcement of a potential fed gov freeze on handguns in Canada, many firearms owners made purchases recently, with most making several. If the CFO was to approve all transfers for a given licensed owner at the same time, they would eliminate duplication of effort and streamline their process.
Licensed, law abiding firearms owners in Ontario should not have to wait months and months to receive their lawful property. Please send a message to Premier Ford that these wait times are completely unacceptable and ask they improve their service standard to match CFO's in other provinces who complete these transfers in a much timelier manner.
I should also mention that I have lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, who investigates public complaints and systemic issues in the pubic sector, which includes Ontario's CFO. I did receive a request from them for more information, but have heard nothing further from on the matter.
Kind Regards
Jay