NOTE: Versions of this article also appeared in: The Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, and the Kingston Whig-Standard.

 PUBLICATION:        National Post

DATE:                         2003.07.15

EDITION:                    National

SECTION:                  Canada

PAGE:                         A7

BYLINE:                     Tim Naumetz

SOURCE:                   CanWest News Service

DATELINE:                 OTTAWA

ILLUSTRATION:     Black & White Photo: Jeff McIntosh, The Canadian Press /James Bachynsky of The Shooting Edge, a Calgary firing range, takes aim last December. (Photo ran All but Toronto) 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Gun registry staff spent $13M on travel: Hospitality bill close to $500,000 for six years

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 OTTAWA - The Canadian Firearms Centre spent $13-million on travel over six years and nearly $500,000 on hospitality during the same period, a government financial statement shows.

 The statement was compiled when KPMG accountants conducted an audit of the controversial gun program this year, but it was not released publicly when the firm submitted its final report to Martin Cauchon, the Minister of Justice.  

The statement, obtained under the Access to Information Act, shows the centre spent $318,084 on hospitality in one year, 1997-98, when the Firearms Act took effect.  

In total, the centre spent $493,287 on hospitality between 1995-96 and 2001-02.  

Mr. Cauchon made public a KPMG report on part of the firearm centre's expenditures and cost accounting last January after Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, released a scathing report in December that revealed spending on the firearms program had ballooned to $1-billion from an original forecast net cost of $2-million.  

The KPMG report included a breakdown of the centre's expenditures for 2001 and 2002, but it did not contain the six-year financial report.  

A senior assistant to Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz, the leading opposition critic of the gun registry in the House of Commons, said he was shocked by the amount spent on travel and entertaining.  

"How could they possibly waste this much money on travel and hospitality expenses," asked Dennis Young, Mr. Breitkreuz' specialist on the firearms program.  

Mr. Young noted Mr. Breitkreuz last month received Access to Information disclosures that revealed the former chief executive officer for the firearms centre, Gary Webster, spent $209,000 over two years commuting to the centre's office in Ottawa from his Edmonton home.  

Mr. Young questioned whether other senior officials working on the gun program also had special commuting privileges and compared the travel and hospitality bills to the extravagant spending style that forced former privacy commissioner George Radwanski to resign.  

"There must have been a lot of bureaucrats commuting to Ottawa every week, like Webster, or eating at Radwanski's favourite restaurants," Mr. Young said.  

A spokesman for the firearms centre was unable to explain the travel and hospitality costs.  

Communications advisor David Austin, who joined the centre three years ago, said one explanation could be that the Justice Department consulted widely with firearms stakeholder groups across Canada as regulations for the Firearms Act were being developed.  

"I've got no way of tracking that one down. Literally, that would be a search of the records," Mr. Austin said. "How are they ever going to find that one? It would be individuals, going back and digging up accounts."  

The financial statement said the firearms centre spent $688- million over the six-year period, although Ms. Fraser argued last December that the figure did not include all spending by other departments and agencies on the gun registry.  

The previously secret statement shows the centre spent $484,229 relocating employees and $1.1-million on "training and development." It spent $73,911 on "membership fees" and a further $55,587 on "conference and travel fees."  

The largest single cost was $221,715,961 for contract services, including the centre's initial computer system for the gun registry, which is being replaced because it was unable to handle demand.  

The centre spent a further $7.9-million on informatics equipment, $13-million for professional services, $9-million for office supplies and $29.3-million for advertising.