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Versions of this article also appeared in the following papers: Saskatoon
Star Phoenix, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Montreal
Gazette, and Windsor Star.
PUBLICATION: The Leader-Post
(Regina) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conservatives eager to see weapons-registry audit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA -- Conservative MPs expect a planned February 2006 auditor general's report into the $2-billion federal gun registry will boost the party's standing among voters heading into a possible spring election, even if the impact of the sponsorship scandal has dissipated. Several Tories said Thursday they are quietly confident the followup report to Auditor General Sheila Fraser's 2002 critique of the federal firearms program, announced in 1995, will reinforce an image the Liberals are not fit to manage the country's finances. "What it's going to do is keep this on the front burner. Canadians will be aware that these people have not changed their ways. In that sense I think it's going to hurt them big-time," said Saskatchewan Conservative Garry Breitkreuz, a longtime crusader against the registry. "It's going to be a bigger fiasco than the sponsorship scandal in the sense that more money has been poured down a big black hole here than in the sponsorship scandal." Election speculation is heating up in the nation's capital in anticipation of the release of a Nov. 1 report from Justice John Gomery into the $250-million sponsorship program, which is expected to be politically damaging to Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government. This week, the Grits began rolling out a legislative agenda that includes energy rebates and tax cuts to placate the Tories and financial help for low-wage earners and seniors to appease the New Democratic Party. The first chance opposition parties will get to defeat the government in a confidence vote comes on Nov. 14, two weeks after the first of Gomery's two reports is released. Martin has committed to calling an election within 30 days of Gomery's second report, which will prescribe ways to prevent sponsorship-style mismanagement and political kickbacks. That report is expected on Feb. 1, 2006. Voter anger at the sponsorship program is expected to subside if the Liberals can hold off a federal vote until the spring, but the Tories are hoping for a gun-registry rebound. Conservative Justice critic Vic Toews said the gun registry was a major election issue in rural Canadian ridings in 2000 and 2004, but he said it is his party's challenge to make it an issue in urban ridings by drawing the link between money invested in the federal program and money lost for such things as health care and education. "There's no question about it that this will be an election issue but I think the challenge of the Conservative party is not just to show this is a concern among hunters and farmers, but among ordinary taxpayers who are paying high-level taxes in this country on a program that isn't producing results," Toews said. NDP Justice critic Joe Comartin said he expects Fraser's next report to be "fairly neutral" and show modest improvements to the program. "If it is, it'll help the Liberals and I think it'll hurt the Conservatives, because what (Public Safety Minister Anne) McLellan and the agency have been saying is that we've got costs under control ... and the system's working reasonably well," Comartin said. "If, on the other hand, it is negative -- if she comes back and reaffirms the financial criticisms that have been made in the 2002 report then I think the Liberal ridings that are rural and semi-urban will get a really, really strong reaction." An annual survey released Thursday by Statistics Canada found that, among homicides where detailed firearm information was known, 84 per cent of the guns were not registered, and 79 per cent of people accused in the crimes did not possess a valid firearms licence. The study found handguns, for which owners have long required a permit, accounted for two-thirds of all gun-related homicides. Such statistics have caused the Conservatives to decry the mandatory registration of rifles and shotguns since 2003 as an ineffective initiative that does little to stop violent crime. Anger over the gun registry peaked in 2002 with Fraser's first report into the costs of implementing the program. While the Justice Department initially estimated the program costs at about $2 million, the probe found actual expenses were skyrocketing and would reach "well over" $1 billion by 2005 while only $140 million in fees had been collected. A Radio-Canada investigation last year found the cost had soared yet again, largely due to the $750-million price tag of a computer system used to track the weapons, $8 million in refunds to people who registered their guns and additional costs for court battles with those opposed to the mandatory registration. Fraser's report is expected to provide an update to her 2002 report showing whether there has been improvement since she last examined the program. Julie Hebert, a Fraser spokeswoman, refused to discuss what the probe will look into, but confirmed it will be tabled in the House of Commons in February. It will not be tabled if Parliament is not sitting, whether because the opposition has defeated the Liberals, or because Martin has prorogued Parliament to lessen the political damage of the Gomery or auditor general reports. ------------------------------------------------ WHAT THE LIBERALS CAN’T
OR WON’T TELL YOU ABOUT THEIR $2 BILLION FIREARMS PROGRAM May 18, 2005 - AUDITOR GENERAL STARTS FOLLOW-UP AUDIT OF FIREARMS PROGRAM http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/auditorletter_2005_05_18.pdf THE GUN REGISTRY TEN
YEARS AND $2 BILLION LATER: NUMBER OF GUNS UNREGISTERED GUN REGISTRY NOT EFFECTIVE
AT TELLING POLICE WHERE THE GUNS ARE NEWS RELEASE - April
28, 2004 NEWS RELEASE - February
27, 2003 TEN YEARS OF GUN REGISTRY
POLLS NEWS RELEASE - October
21, 2003 NEWS RELEASE - June
30, 2003 NEWS RELEASE - March
24, 2003 LIBRARY REPORT: "ESTIMATES
OF SOME COSTS OF ENFORCING THE FIREARMS ACT" NEWS RELEASE - May
11, 2001 |