NEWS RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

November 24, 1999

For Immediate Release

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS REPORT DOCUMENTS FEDERAL FIREARMS FIASCO

"Despite 70% lower than anticipated volumes – ‘tinkering’ with current processes and systems will not be sufficient to eliminate the backlog."

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville and Official Opposition Firearms Critic, dropped another bombshell on the federal government’s much troubled gun registry. "The Access to Information Act is proving to be the Justice Minister’s worst nightmare," said Breitkreuz. "The table of contents, let alone the 74-page PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, reads like a horror story written for bureaucrats by Stephen King." Here are just a few examples: "Backlogs exist across the operation - Workflow is inflexible and inefficient - Exception handling is not the exception; it’s the norm - System is not designed for operational efficiency – Current organizational structure still reflects a project mode – Emerging organizational structure will not promote operational productivity."

"Now we know why MPs have been getting so many complaints. The whole gun registration system is in a shambles," stated Breitkreuz. "The government made the classic mistake of not testing any of their bureaucratic systems before implementing them on an unsuspecting public. No wonder their costs have ballooned to more than $300 million – three and a half times their original budget of $85 million. Reviewing the consultants’ recommendations leads me to believe that the bureaucracy will increase exponentially and the costs will continue to skyrocket out of control."

Some of the more alarming findings in the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report include:

Licence applications are running at 10% of forecast
41,500 licence applications received – only 13% completed
29,500 registration applications received – only 2% completed
19,800 firearms transfer applications received by telephone – only 42% completed

"Average time of 3 hours" to complete a firearms transfer [not 15 minutes as the Minister promised]

"They have to hang up on the caller to find the status of the work by searching over 50 queues."

Historical backlogs at CFR are not going down appreciably
Volume of complaints and inquiries is directly proportional to the volume of work in the backlog

PriceWaterhouseCooper’s own consultants concluded, "Tinkering with current processes and systems will not be sufficient to eliminate the backlog." They summarized their analysis this way, "However, if these productivity issues are not addressed, then the capacity of the CFP will not be sufficient to deal with the demands placed on it." [their emphasis]

"At least the Liberals have another example of how not to do things," concluded Breitkreuz. "Now, will the Minister of Justice have the courage to "dismantle the ill-conceived and unnecessary registry immediately" as the editorial board of Windsor Star urged her to do on November 17^th?

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For copies of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, please call:

Yorkton Office: (306) 782-3309

Ottawa Office: (613) 992-4394

e-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca