Publication: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Section: Editorial Leaders
Page: A12
Date: 2006-02-17

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Editorial - Scrap gun registry

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Cops who work the streets, who sometimes have to look down the barrels of guns in the hands of criminals, are opposed to the federal gun registry. In Winnipeg, the police officers who do the work of fighting crime believe that the money that three former Liberal governments wasted on the registration of hunting rifles and shotguns could have been better spent helping them do their jobs This week Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz, Justice Minister Vic Toews and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to plot a quick and merciful death for a plan that has cost Canadians close to $2 billion since 1995, a plan that has produced no measurable improvements in public safety but has coincided with an easily measurable rise in gun crime.

Most police officers think that the money being spent on the registry would be better spent on front-line policing. Immediately after the election, Winnipeg Police Chief Jack Ewatski urged Mr. Harper not to dismantle the gun registry, but Mr. Ewatski is no longer on the front lines -- his realm is the political and administrative parts of policing. This week's action by the federal government was warmly welcomed by Winnipeg Police Association President Loren Schinkel: "We've always been against the long-gun-registry -- that's the aspect of the program with the ballooning costs."

Scrapping the gun registry has long been a promise of Conservatives. It also has the support of many New Democrats and some Liberals. But the minority government situation that Conservatives find themselves in today may restrict what the government can do. Without a majority Mr. Harper would need opposition support for legislation to abolish it -- he might try holding the NDP to its professed policy or, a tougher job, try convincing individual anti-registry Liberal MPs to vote with their conscience rather than for their convenience. Failing that, Mr. Harper can simply starve the registry by cutting its funding, reducing it from a vastly bloated bureaucracy to, perhaps, a single bureaucrat in New Brunswick. Either way, he should act cautiously but move quickly. Gun control will be a litmus test of Conservative credentials. Shutting down the registry will be not only symbolic but practical. Mr. Harper cannot bring back the almost $2 billion that the Liberals wasted, but he can ensure that future funds will go where the money is needed -- to help cops fight crime on the streets.