PUBLICATION:
The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal
DATE:
2002.10.03
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
A10
COLUMN:
Miramichi
BYLINE:
DERWIN GOWAN Telegraph-Journal
DATELINE:
MIRAMICHI
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firm
plans to begin administering firearms program in January
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officially,
the federal government does not know who will administer Canada's firearms
licensing and registration program after the end of this year. But, BDP Business
Data Services Ltd., an outsourcing firm based in Toronto, held open houses at
the Rodd Miramichi River Inn this week seeking 125 employees. BDP chief
operating officer Bruno Sperduti said in an interview the company intends to
move into the Canadian Firearms Centre Central Processing site in Miramichi, and
begin administering the system on Jan. 9.
The
company has hired Carey Traer, a Miramichier living in Fredericton for the past
10 years, lately with the Maritime Road Development Corporation, as human
resources manager for BDP's new Miramichi operation. About 250 people filled out
job application forms during the open house sessions on Monday afternoon and
evening. "We need to be able to go in there with a running start and take
it over on Day 1," Mr. Sperduti said.
The
135-140 federal civil servants at the Central Processing Site in the former
Chatham post office work are working overtime to register the estimated 7.9
million guns in Canada by the Jan. 1, 2003, deadline set out in the Canadian
Firearms Act, which became law in 1995.
But
only 13 of these employees have indefinite contracts. The rest expire around the
end of the year, meaning it could be the end of the line for most of them -
unless the new private sector partner hires them.
"Our
commitment in the contract is to the community of Miramichi, and not to that set
of employees," Mr. Sperduti said.
Except,
says Canadian Firearms Centre spokesman David Austin in Ottawa, BDP does not
have the contract - yet.
On
July 18, the cabinet awarded a contract worth $36 million, GST included, to a
partnership of BDP and CGI Group Inc. of Montreal to "develop a solution
that will assist in the delivery of administrative services associated with
Canada's Firearms Program." The press release from CGI announcing the
contract stated that it "has the potential to be extended for 15
years" - allowing the partnership to administer the firearms program if
Ottawa accepts the BDP/CGI proposal.
CGI
would build the electronic solution, BDP the business processing functions.
"Key features of the secure multi-channeled solution, which leverages the
advantages of component-based architecture offering advanced workflow
capabilities and customer-centric servicing, include compliance with program
requirements, program access, enhanced client service and consistency with
international obligations related to the transportation of firearms," the
press release states.
Mr.
Austin said the Department of Justice, not the private sector partner, would run
the firearms program. "It isn't running the program, it's providing
administrative services for us," he said. "It's going to be
co-located," he said, meaning that Department of Justice and private sector
partner employees would work together at the Central Processing Site.
Mr.
Sperduti and the other BDP representatives here this week understood that six or
seven federal civil servants will remain at the Central Processing Site, but Mr.
Austin was not certain of the number. "They're taking steps to prepare for
the longer term, and that might be prudent for them to do," Mr. Austin
said, referring to BDP's open houses in Miramichi. "However, I just want to
emphasize again that no decision has been made on that longer term."
Miramichi
MP Charles Hubbard said Wednesday that Bill C-15B, amendments to the Criminal
Code, died on the order paper in the Senate when Parliament was prorogued in
September - and the cabinet cannot formally award the contract for
administrative services for the Canadian Firearms Centre until the bill becomes
law. He said the House of Commons, which debated this bill once already, will
likely send it on a fast-track back to the Senate. He believes the BDP/CGI
partnership must have a memorandum of understanding of some type for the company
to be hiring now.
The
federal justice department is not negotiating with anybody else at this point to
provide administrative services for the firearms program, and the employment
contracts with the departmental employees at the Central Processing Site expire
in three months.
John
Edmunds, national vice-president of the Union of Solicitor General's Employees,
made his bottom line clear in a telephone interview from Ottawa "We're
opposed, obviously, to privatization. Some of the public services are of such a
broad public interest that they shouldn't be surrendered to the private
sector," he said. In addition, he worried about the economic impact of
trading union jobs in the civil service for non-union jobs with an outsource
company. "You can't trust the private sector to keep jobs in New
Brunswick," he said.
Mr.
Sperduti said the 800-plus employees of his company have no union.
Reach
our reporter tjmira@nb.aibn.com