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Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services
The adaptations allow other community members to vouch for an applicant who is investigated because of safety concerns or provided with restrictions that might hamper hunting and gathering activities.
Native leaders argue that they were not consulted during the bill's drafting.
They contend that levying registration fees is a violation of fishing and hunting rights, as it restricts their ability to gather and hunt freely.
At its July annual meeting in Halifax, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) passed a draft version of an alternative registration arrangement.
"We are developing a First Nations approach to firearms," said AFN vice-chief for the NWT Bill Erasmus.
"We are looking at what it would involve, in recognizing that are our chiefs and councils have the authority to work with Canada to put into practice a regime that respected public safety, the tenets of the firearms act and treaty and aboriginal rights," he said.
Erasmus has been given the gun registration portfolio for the AFN.
The AFN has formed a working group to look at the issue, and is hoping for a quick resolution with the Canadian Firearms Centre.
"It will be a national program and we would work in conjunction with the Firearms Centre," he said.
"We would have our own officers who would be trained and would have the ability to provide our own licences to our own people."
"Any major policy initiative that's going to effect First Nations livelihoods needs to be culturally appropriate," said Michael Nadli, grand chief of the Deh Cho First Nations.
"In this instance, having an aboriginal firearms officer would do well because they need to understand the language and culture of these hunters and trappers who commonly use these tools for their livelihood."
Others want permits to be granted based on leaders' approval, rather than the signature of other community members.
If the firearms officer does not know the community, "anybody can have a co-signer for anyone else," said Pat Martel, chief of the Katlo Deedhe First Nation in Hay River.
From the beginning, the federal government's firearm registry plan was explosive. Farmers and hunters across the country lamented the need to register their long guns with the state.
They questioned its fiscal impact, its effectiveness and its constitutional legitimacy.
But the government passed Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, nonetheless.
It came into effect Dec. 1, 1998. The bill required all firearm owners to be licensed by Jan. 1, 2001, and all firearms to be registered two years later.
