NOTE:
Versions of this story also ran in: Edmonton Journal, Victoria Times Colonist
and Vancouver Sun.
PUBLICATION:
The
Ottawa Citizen
DATE:
2003.05.27
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
A3
BYLINE:
Tim Naumetz
SOURCE:
The Ottawa Citizen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill
for gun registry $17.4M more than disclosed, Alliance learns: Departments spent
funds on $1B program without saying so
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Government
departments spent at least $17.4 million on the federal firearms registry since
1999 over and above the $1 billion Auditor General Sheila Fraser disclosed last
fall, the Canadian Alliance says.
None
of the money was reported to Parliament as having been spent on the firearms
program, Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz said yesterday after releasing information
his party obtained from the government through a House of Commons written
inquiry.
Ms.
Fraser last year accused the Justice Department of failing to report to
Parliament all the money it has spent on the registry since 1995, including
money spent by other departments.
The
information shows the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency spent $4.8 million
between April 1994 and December 2002 on the program. The money was not
reimbursed by the Justice Department, and therefore did not appear as part of
the department's expenditures on the program. The customs agency, which spent
the funds on control measures at the border, did not report the expenditure as a
contribution toward the firearms program.
Mr.
Breitkreuz said other expenditures included $5 million by Correctional Services
Canada, $4.1 million by the National Parole Board, and $2.8 million by Human
Resources Development Canada.
According
to the information, Foreign Affairs spent $45,000, while the office of the
information commissioner spent $200,000, much of it attributable to years of
access to information requests Mr. Breitkreuz has filed. The office of the
privacy commissioner spent $400,000.
The
government earlier this year promised to disclose the amounts spent by other
departments on the gun program in a performance report to be tabled in the fall.
Solicitor
General Wayne Easter claimed all of the figures Mr. Breitkreuz disclosed
yesterday were reported to Commons committees through departmental spending
estimates.
"The
government hid nothing in terms of costs," said Mr. Easter, adding 325
police investigations used the services of the firearms programs in the month of
December last year. The solicitor general said Mr. Breitkreuz appeared to be
suggesting that the cost of any incarcerations from those investigations should
be attributed to the firearms program.
----------------------------------------------