PUBLICATION:        The Ottawa Citizen

DATE:                         2004.05.21

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  News

PNAME:                      Editorial

PAGE:                         A18

SOURCE:                   The Ottawa Citizen

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Too little, too late on the gun registry

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Treasury Board President Reg Alcock performed a feat of superhuman strength yesterday: he kept a straight face while declaring that a key Liberal objective is "to ensure that Canadians' tax dollars are managed wisely." This required superhuman strength because he was talking about the gun registry.

Or should we say the infamous gun registry? For it's hard not to invoke an emotive adjective -- typical ones are "notorious" or "absurd" -- when discussing the gun registry. This misplaced effort at gun control may well be the biggest public-policy failure of the last decade. Introduced in 1995, the registry was supposed to cost $2 million. In reality, the total cost is expected to surpass $1 billion by next year. Auditor General Sheila Fraser nearly had an aneurysm two years ago when she discovered that bureaucrats had neglected to keep Parliament informed about the cost overruns.

It's downright insulting that, just before an expected election call, the Liberals suddenly acknowledge that it's time to bring "sound management practices" to the gun registry. And what are those new practices? Most notably, the government will cap at $25 million what it spends annually on the registry. Guess that's better than the $48 million that was spent in fiscal 2001-02. Still, imagine how many MRIs and heart surgeries those millions could buy.