Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.
Yorkton-Melville		 News Release

For Immediate Delivery

June 21, 1999

CABINET SECRECY INVOKED TO HIDE TRUE COSTS OF GUN REGISTRY

"The documents do prove that the government’s cost and revenue projections are completely shot."

Yorkton – Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville and Firearms Critic for the Official Opposition, has filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner in an attempt to obtain 177 pages of documents that were withheld from him by the Department of Justice (see Table of Contents attached for more details). "I must be getting close to the truth," said Breitkreuz. "I’ve never had the department use the ‘Cabinet Confidences’ excuse to hide information from me and my constituents before. The cost overruns must also be very big if the Cabinet is involved."

"The really disappointing thing is that the government hasn’t voluntarily provided the information on the costs of the gun registry as part of the Estimates tabled in Parliament every year. Now they can stall for another whole year while the Information Commissioner reviews the 177 full pages and 28 partial pages of information excluded and exempted from the Justice Department’s response to my Access to Information Request."

"We’ve been pouring over the 151 pages I did receive and here’s some of the more interesting things we have found so far:

  1. A budget breakdown shows that $82,409,371 was expended on the registry between 1995 and 1998. Oddly, in April of 1998, the Deputy Minister of Justice told the Justice Committee that they had only spent $66 million over this same period.
  2. Another document shows "total available funding" for 1998/99 was $77,920,000. However, another document showed the government exceeded the total available funding for that year by spending $133,506,240.
  3. Another document on cost and revenue projections estimates that the registry would licence 45% of the gun owners and register 45% of the guns in the new system in the first 12 months. Even using the government’s ridiculously low estimates of the number of legally-owned guns and the number of responsible gun owners, they have processed firearms licences for only 69,438 (2%) of gun owners and registered only 65,825 (less than 1%) of the firearms in the first 6 months. Consequently the government’s revenue projections from the special tax levied on law-abiding gun owners for this so-called ‘public service’ are completely shot.

"No wonder Cabinet is involved. They have to approve the expenditure of hundreds of millions more tax dollars to get this politically-motivated, bureaucratic-monstrosity off the ground. And, because Cabinet is involved, I can’t get the information the public needs to make an intelligent decision on the costs and benefits of the government’s gun control programs and policies." Breitkreuz concluded, "Obviously, the Justice Minister is hoping she can keep this embarrassing information hidden until after the August meeting of the Canadian Police Association where a motion to withdraw their ‘official’ support of the firearm registry will be debated."

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For more information, please call:

Yorkton Office: (306) 782-3309
Ottawa Office: (613) 992-4394
e-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca

 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION REQUEST

DOCUMENTS FROM

DEPT. OF JUSTICE - FILE: A98-00283

Obtained by Garry Breitkreuz, MP (Yorkton-Melville) – June 14, 1999

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Proposed Budget Allocation for Canadian Firearms Centre 1998/99
  2. Canadian Firearms Centre - Expenditure from 1995-98 to 1998/99 [Page 167]
  3. OPS Presentation April 15, 1998 Pages 177 – 200]
  4. OPS Presentation May 13, 1998 [Pages 204 – 223]
  5. OPS Committee Presentation Nov 12th [Pages 168 – 171]
  6. Untitled & Undated Description of Project [Pages 225 – 228]
  7. Financial Framework & Long-Term Strategy undated [Pages 229 – 245]
  8. Memorandum of Understanding – Dept. of Justice and Solicitor General,

    9. July 4, 1996 [Pages – 246 – 252]

  9. Memorandum of Understanding Re: Opt-Out Jurisdictions – Dept. of Justice and RCMP, Feb 20, 1998 [Pages 253- 262]
  1. Amendment to Memorandum of Understanding – Dept. of Justice and RCMP,

    2. February 13, 1997 [Pages 263 – 265]

  2. Memorandum of Understanding – Dept. of Justice and RCMP,

    3. July 4, 1996 [Pages 266 – 280]

  3. Memorandum of Understanding – Dept. of Justice and Human Resources Development, January 29, 1998 [Pages 290 – 338]

 

SUMMARY OF EXEMPTED AND EXCLUDED PAGES

  1. "Cabinet Confidences" - Section 69(1)(a) & (g) Exemptions and Exclusions
  1. "Advice and Recommendations" to a Minister – Section 21(1)(a)
  1. Vulnerability of Systems, etc – Section 16(2)(c)

 

Total: 177 pages excluded entirely, 28 pages partially excluded