DATE:
2004.09.30
EDITION: Final
SECTION:
Sports
PAGE:
97
BYLINE:
JOHN KERR, OUTDOORS WRITER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MORE
MESS FROM THE CFC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
CANADIAN Firearms Centre (CFC) seems to be avoiding another mess with the
billion-dollar-and-counting firearms program by heading off a huge workload that
would result when more than one million Possession-Only Licences expire.
It
is extending, on a one-time basis, the expiry dates of some POLs for a period of
up to four years. No Possession and Acquisition Licences (PALs) are being
extended.
However,
firearm owners who paid only $10 for POLs, when the CFC dropped fees and had
staff running all over Canada to encourage hunter compliance, will have to shell
out $60 to renew them, just as do PAL holders.
Renewal
notices and stickers with new expiry dates will be mailed to affected licence
holders in Ontario from Nov. 1-4.
WHY?
The
CFC says that unless you receive a notice that your POL is extended, your
licence expires on the date shown on it. If in doubt, call 1-800-731-4000 to
confirm your licence's status.
All
of this begs the question as to why firearm licences need to be renewed every
five years anyway, except as a means of taking more money from hunters, target
shooters, and collectors already staggering under a burden of pricey licences
and permits of all kinds.
After
all, the system is supposedly set up so that firearm licences can be revoked
anytime if a person is deemed unsuitable to own and use guns.
A
lifetime licence, as with a firearms registration certificate (unless it changes
hands), would help cut costs and red tape.
And while I am on the subject, the CFC needs to get back to plastic registration certificates. Those cheap paper printouts are chintzy and do not last long, unless you laminate them at another personal cost.