PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE:
2004.05.12
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
A6
BYLINE:
Tim Naumetz
SOURCE:
The Ottawa Citizen
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Gun
registry office rent has critics up in arms: $1.3M tab for Ottawa office tower
headquarters half of total spent on 27 locations nationwide
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The
federal government is spending $1.3 million annually to rent space for the
Canada Firearms Centre in a downtown Ottawa office tower. The tab for the gun
registry headquarters in the Clarica Centre -- which bills itself as the
"most sophisticated and desirable business address" in the city --
makes up half the entire $3.5 million the government spends on office rent for
the firearms program at 27 locations across the country.
Conservative
MP Garry Breitkreuz, who obtained the firearm centre's rental bills through the
Access to Information Act, said the extravagance is an example of the kind of
wild gun-registry spending Auditor General Sheila Fraser singled out more than
two years ago.
Mr.
Breitkreuz added it is unbelievable the firearms centre is still spending so
much on office space for its management following Ms. Fraser's 2002 report,
which warned the gun program was to cost $1 billion by 2005. "They have no
shame," said Mr. Breitkreuz. "It doesn't seem to trouble them to just
keep shovelling money out the door."
The
interior of the Clarica Centre, owned and managed by the Sun Life Financial
group of companies, features marble flooring, deep carpets and wood-paneled
stainless steel elevator cars. The centre consists of two towers, separated by a
sunlit, foliage-filled atrium, with Hy's Steak House nestled in one corner on
the main floor.
The
Embassy of Saudi Arabia occupies space in the west tower of the Clarica Centre
and the Embassy of Israel is located in the east tower.
The
Public Works Department pays $1,164,017 of the annual rental for the firearms
centre. The centre itself puts up the remaining $206,135, but the total bill is
attributed as firearm-program cost in government reporting.
The
government documents specify total firearms centre space in the building as
being 2,317 square metres, at $580 per square metre for annual rent.
David
Lees of JJ Barnicke Ltd., a commercial realtor, described the Clarica site as
"certainly centre ice, in terms of downtown premier office space" and
said thousands of square metres of vacant space are available in Ottawa's west
end after the recent high-tech meltdown.
A
firearms centre spokesman said about 100 employees of the national staff of 325
are working in the building.
Spokesman
Thomas Vares defended the prime location as a good place for the centre because
"it's obviously an excellent location to do business."
The
firearms centre's lowest rental cost for office space is in Yellowknife, at $162
per square metre annually. The centre pays rent of $290 per square metre, a
total of $416,549 annually, for its gun-registry processing site in Miramichi,
N.B. The Ottawa rent is the most costly.
The
Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the firearms centre is wasting taxpayer
dollars. "The No. 1 rule of
thumb when you're in government is if you can find a way to save money, do
it," said research director Bruce Winchester.