NOTE: An edited version of Garry’s column appeared in THE HILL TIMES, Monday, March 22, 2004 – Page 32 – Rural and Urban Affairs  - http://www.thehilltimes.ca/

GUN REGISTRY HAS COST RURAL CANADIANS DEARLY: BREITKREUZ

Rural Canadians who use firearms have take a big hit, right in their pocket books

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – March 22, 2004

Rural Canada’s culture, heritage and economy have been under a sustained attack by the Liberals since 1976.  In a crass attempt to get votes in the big cities, successive Liberal governments have spent billions creating the impression they were getting tough on crime by bringing in gun laws that vainly attempts to track the whereabouts of 2 million law-abiding Canadians but doesn’t even authorize police to monitor movements of the 131,000 convicted criminals that are prohibited from owning firearms by the courts.  Maybe if there had been measurable gun control or reduction in violent crime it could be tolerated, but there has been none.  If anyone doubts this statement, please call Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino. 

While urban residents have been short-changed by the Liberals in terms of diminished public safety, rural Canadians that use firearms for their livelihood and recreation have taken a big hit too – right in their pocket books.  However, Paul Martin’s government is not about to tell us so.  The government’s 115-page report on the economic cost and impact of Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, was declared a “Cabinet confidence” in 1999 and remains a state secret to this day.  The government’s cost-benefit analysis of the gun registry required by Cabinet-approved regulatory policy has likewise been declared a Cabinet secret lest it expose the Liberals’ decades-long attack against law-abiding gun owners and legally-owned guns.  Add to this the fact that the federal departments that should be concerned about the economic impact of the government’s so-called gun control laws, aren’t.  In 2001, Industry Canada, Environment Canada and the Finance Department all replied that they had “no records” in response to my Access to Information Act requests in this regard. 

This column documents the severe negative impact these laws have had especially on rural Canada by people who can least afford it.

(1)   In April 2000, the government released documents showing that just the “regulatory cost” of purchasing a hunting rifle was $279.00.

(2)   For the last two years, the government has steadfastly refused to provide compliance costs as required in the Auditor General’s December 2002 report.  Analysis of licencing and registration compliance costs by the Library of Parliament indicates that compliance with the Firearms Act has already cost law-abiding gun owners between $367 and  $764 million.

(3)   Between 1979 and 2001, the RCMP report the number of businesses selling firearms and ammunition dropped by 11,857.  That’s a loss of 538 businesses a year and the thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue that go with them – mostly in rural and northern Canada.

(4)   There are 1.6 million hunters licenced by the provinces.  Hunters have always had a keen interest in maintaining a healthy environment in which plants and animals thrive in a healthy balance.  Liberal policies have guaranteed that that interest is in decline and this is having a devastating effect on wildlife populations.  The government has done nothing to address this problem and the costs are incalculable.

(5)   Since the government started introducing gun control laws targeting law abiding firearm owners, the number of hunters in Canada has been in a steady decline.  For example, in 1966 the number of Migratory Game Bird Hunting Permits issued was 380,059 reaching a high of 524,946 in 1978 and as of December 2003 it has dropped to just 168,091.

(6)   As hunters are driven from their sport, wildlife populations are becoming unmanageable.  Between 1988 and 2000, the Ontario Road Safety Annual Reports show a total of 90,313 motor vehicle accidents involving wild animals in Ontario – from a low of 3,991 wildlife accidents in 1988 to a record high of 10,388 in the year 2000.  Over this 12-year period, there have been a total of 4,813 wildlife accidents resulting in personal injury and 57 human fatalities. 

(7)   In 2000, British Columbia recorded more than 4,700 wildlife-related accidents costing the province over $18 million in motor vehicle accident claims; $600,000 in highway clean-up costs; $300,000 in lost provincial hunting licence revenues; and $30 million in lost value to residents and non-residents who view or hunt wildlife.

(8)   In 1998, the Ontario government reported that wildlife damages cost Ontario farmers over $41 million.  Annually, over $7.5 million and over 800,000 hours were invested by farmers in the abatement of wildlife damages.  Big game crop damage compensation in my home province of Saskatchewan for last year alone was $10.3 million.  My constituents tell me this amount represents less than 10% of their actual crop damage costs.

(9)   Every year for decades, tens of thousands of American hunters have been coming into Canada without ever being suspected of contributing to gun crime while vacationing in our country.  For some reason, the Liberals now think they’re a threat to public safety.  Since 2000, 288,000 American hunters have paid $11 million dollars and endured rolls of federal red-tape to bring their legally-owned guns into Canada.  However, many more have stayed at home costing the economy far more than the Liberal government took from these hunters’ pockets in futile firearms fees.  Outfitters and guiding businesses including some owned and operated by Aboriginals have been the hardest hit.

 (10)  Finally, the Liberal government’s ultimate insult to law abiding firearm owners was

the arbitrary banning of 568,460 registered firearms with the passage of Bill C-68, the Firearms Act in 1995.  The Liberals banned them without presenting a shred of evidence in Parliament that these registered firearms were the least bit dangerous in the hands of their law-abiding, government-licenced owners.  The Liberals banned these registered firearms violating the fundamental rights of these completely innocent citizens to own and enjoy property.  To this day, the Liberals refuse to pay compensation to these tens of thousands of law-abiding firearm owners for the loss in value of their property or for the value of the registered firearms the government ordered confiscated.  Once again, the Liberals heavy-handed actions proved to everyone in Canada that registration does, in fact, lead to confiscation.

The Liberals have already admitted that a billion dollars has been wasted on implementation of the Firearms Act, but the true costs are much, much higher.  More than two years after the Auditor General blew the whistle on this boondoggle, Paul Martin’s Liberals are still keeping Parliament and the public in the dark.  This may be a new Prime Minister, but he is behaving exactly like the Prime Minister he replaced.  Unfortunately, Canada is paying a high price for the Liberals’ useless gun registry – for urban Canadians, higher rates of violent crime; and for rural Canadians a direct attack to their heritage, culture, livelihood, businesses, jobs, economic opportunities and safety.

Garry Breitkreuz, is the Deputy House Leader for the Official Opposition, Justice Critic for Firearms Issues and Property Rights and the Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan.  For documentation referred to in this column, please visit Garry’s website: www.garrybreitkreuz.com