“Parliament is still being kept in the dark and from his answers in the House, so is the Solicitor General.”

Ottawa - Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, uncovered another $17.5 million wasted on the billion-dollar gun registry and also exposed some major discrepancies in the department’s record keeping. Yesterday in Question Period, Solicitor General Wayne Easter was unable to answer Breitkreuz’s questions asking why an additional $17.5 million in spending by seven other departments and agencies was not reimbursed or reported to Parliament as a gun registry expense. Amazingly, six months after the Auditor General blew the whistle on their slipshod accounting, Easter was still unable to answer how much the gun registry would cost to fully implement and maintain. “Obviously, the Minister’s bureaucrats can’t keep an accurate count of the money they’ve wasted on the gun registry, and yesterday’s response to my Access to Information (ATI) Act request proves they can’t keep an accurate count of the number of guns they have registered either.”

On February 22, 2003, the Canadian Firearms Centre (CFC) website reported: “6,103,757 unique firearms have been registered in the CFRS.” But the response to an ATI request Breitkreuz received yesterday states that as of April 15, 2003: “The total number of firearms registered including a breakdown of non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. Total: 6,019,925.” Breitkreuz asked, “That’s a drop of more than 80,000 guns registered in the last two months. Does anyone over there know how many guns they registered for the billion dollars they wasted? No wonder they started to round off all the registration statistics posted on their website again.”

There are a few other statistical discrepancies when comparing yesterday's ATI response to the department’s response to a similar request Breitkreuz filed in February. For example:

q The number of individuals that still have to register their firearms increased to 294,301 - an increase of more than 7,500 over the last two months. Why?

q The number of individuals that re-registered their firearms decreased to 135,465 - a decrease of more than 28,000 over the last two months. Why?

q The department also reported the number of firearms registered to museums, public agencies and dealer inventories decreased to 207,044 - a decrease of more than 370,000 guns. Why?

“The statistics also reveal an even bigger problem for Mr. Easter,” observed Breitkreuz. “The government says they have 294,301 licenced individuals that still haven’t applied to register their long guns, and another 338,121 individuals that still have to re-register their handguns - all before the end of June when the current amnesty expires. But recent newspaper accounts say they have only received about 70,000 letters of intent that would allow these individuals to take advantage of the amnesty. That leaves over half a million licenced firearm owners that will become instant criminals on July 1, 2003, to join the other half-million gun owners the government estimates missed the licencing deadline two years ago. Have a Happy Canada Day, Mr. Easter.”

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