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Less than two hours after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal government has the right to destroy long-gun registry data collected in Quebec between 1995 and 2012, the province announced it would be moving ahead with its own registry — with or without Ottawa’s help.

Provincial Public Safety minister Lise Thériault was unequivocal during a press conference held Friday morning in Quebec City, promising that the legislative base for a provincial registry would be in place by the end of this parliamentary session. That legislation will, in turn, set up a timeline for the establishment of the new registry.

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Based on a unanimous motion passed last fall in the National Assembly, the bill is expected to be supported by all opposition parties. Both Québec solidaire and the Coalition avenir Québec reaffirmed their support on Friday morning.

“We remain convinced that the daily use of a tool like this one is necessary to facilitate police investigations and interventions,” said Thériault, adding that the most recent statistics suggest that the federal long-gun registry data — which was still available to Quebec’s police forces until Friday — was consulted an average of 900 times a day.