Ottawa – Today in the House of Commons, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, revealed that the Liberal government has been using two Treasury Board Firearms Oversight Committees to avoid coming to Parliament for approval of cost overruns in the error plagued gun registry. "The more we dig, the more lies and deception we find. We will keep digging until everyone knows the truth," promised Breitkreuz.

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, in April 1995 the justice minister promised parliament that the gun registration scheme would run a deficit of only $2.2 million over five years. The actual deficit was 150 times as much at $300 million. We were promised that user fees would cover the entire cost of the program. The justice minister has been stonewalling investigators from the office of the information commissioner since last August. Hundreds of pages of registry documents have been declared Cabinet secrets. What is the government hiding? Exactly how much has the gun registry cost to date?

 

Mr. John Maloney (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, Canadians overwhelmingly support the Canadian firearms system. We cannot look at this without looking at costs and benefits. Over the last five years this has cost Canadians about $2 per head. That is very inexpensive when we are looking at public safety. We also have to look at the benefits. We are now administering the program and saving roughly $30 million that the police otherwise would have spent in the administration. This is good legislation. Why is the hon. member and his party trying to undermine this legislation?

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the President of the Treasury Board. Sources inside the justice department told us last August that the gun registry budget for this fiscal year was $260 million alone. That would put the total cost of the registry at more than $585 million, $500 million more than the original estimate. Will the President of the Treasury Board explain why there are only two oversight committees in all of Treasury Board and why both of them have to do with firearms? Why have these expenditures not come to parliament for approval?

Mr. John Maloney (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the total costs over the last five years are roughly $227 million. This includes the $85 million set up cost. When the system is fully implemented we are looking at roughly $60 million per year to administer and the cost of the fees will pay for that.

"The government is very afraid that this information will get out because they know how closely linked support for the gun registry from the non-firearm owning public depends on keeping the costs very, very low." Breitkreuz explained, "Two professors, Dr. Gary Mauser and Dr. H. Taylor Buckner, conducted an extensive survey to determine the difference between an uninformed response and an informed one on the issue of gun registration. Their findings were published by the Mackenzie Institute in a 1997 a report titled, Canadian Attitudes Toward Gun Control: The Real Story. When they asked respondents: Do you agree or disagree that all firearms should be registered - 75.7% Agreed Strongly. Respondents were also asked: If it would cost $500 million over the next five years to set up and maintain a firearms registry, would you still agree? Only 32.4% Agreed Strongly."