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“There was a … very general understanding that you were going to have to provide evidence as to who you were and what was your purpose of coming up on the Hill,” said Mr. Dykstra, a St. Catharines, Ont., MP.

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Currently, visitors on the Hill are not screened until they pass through an airport-style metal detector in a basement checkpoint of the Centre Block, directly beneath the Peace Tower.

Construction plans now underway include an underground “Visitor Welcome Centre” to be built as part of the renovations of the West Block.

It will house a new security screening centre for visitors and include tunnels that connect the buildings on the Hill. However, it’s not expected to be completed until 2017.

In the wake of last week’s shooting on the Hill, House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer ordered a review and how to improve security.

In recent years, security access has been tightened, as bollards were installed on traffic lanes that lead from Wellington Street, directly in front of the Hill.

But those bollards did not impede Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who jumped out of his parked car on Wellington, carrying a rifle. Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau ran past the bollards and commandeered a minister’s parked vehicle to drive up to the Centre Block, where he fled down the Hall of Honour before being killed in a hail of gunfire.

NDP House leader Peter Julian said Thursday he opposes security checkpoints on Wellington Street.

He said there is already a “first line of check” in place: police officers in the precinct and security cameras.

“I do think it’s appropriate that suspicious folks — and that includes anybody carrying a rifle — that there should be an effective process so that those people are stopped,” said Mr. Julian.

“That’s a far sight different from having metal detectors on Wellington Street and barbed wire on the fences around Parliament Hill so that people can no longer go to the people’s place.”

Mr. Scheer said he and the Board of Internal Economy are committed to ensuring Parliament “is both open and secure.”

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