NOTE:
On October 24th
versions of this Canadian Press article also appeared in: the Calgary Herald,
Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Sun, Calgary Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Toronto Sun, London
Free Press, Edmonton Sun, Montreal Gazette and Winnipeg Free Press.
On October 25th, versions of this story appeared in: the Windsor Star,
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Waterloo Record, Moncton Times and Transcript,
PUBLICATION:
Times Colonist (Victoria)
DATE:
2004.10.24
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE: A4
BYLINE:
Bruce Cheadle
SOURCE:
The Canadian Press
DATELINE:
OTTAWA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Botched'
gun registry faces budget axe: As Ottawa looks for $12 billion in savings,
firearms centre could find funding cut even more
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OTTAWA
-- The troubled federal gun registry could face further cuts under the
government's $12-billion expenditure review this autumn.
The
program was fettered in May when the Liberals capped the registry's annual
operating stipend at $25 million in a pre-election announcement just before the
writ was dropped.
That
doesn't mean it won't get another long look under the reallocation exercise
being conducted by Revenue Minister John McCallum.
"From
his point of view, it's certainly on the table," said McCallum spokesman
Shane Diaczuk.
And
a senior government official said the gun registry will almost certainly be open
to negotiation this fall. The program will be "tough to defend because no
one can say it hasn't been botched," said the official. It could survive,
"but has to be changed."
The
minister himself was studiously neutral about the program in an interview with
The Canadian Press last week, stating that "at this point, I'm not ruling
anything in or out," of the expenditure review. Pushed to clarify, McCallum
politely declined. "No, it just means I'm not commenting on that," he
said.
McCallum
has demanded that every government department submit a list of its lowest
spending priorities, comprising five per cent of the value of each departmental
budget. By the end of the week, all but "two or three" of the 40
federal departments had submitted their lists, said McCallum. Public Security
Minister Anne McLellan's department is among the tardy, said a source.
But
even if Public Security doesn't offer up the registry for review, McCallum's
committee can choose to examine the program anyway.
"Obviously, nothing's exempt from this review but it's still too
soon to say what is going to be in or out," said Alex Swann, McLlellan's
communications director. "Those discussions are still going on in terms of
what will be reallocated."
The
registry was budgeted to cost $2 million when it was introduced by then-justice
minister Allan Rock in 1995 to help stem gun violence. The government said most
of the actual $119 million projected cost would be recovered through
registration fees, leaving only $2 million to be covered by taxpayers. But costs
spiralled and led Auditor General Sheila Fraser to forecast an
"astronomical cost overrun" of about $1 billion by 2005.
In
a pre-election announcement May 20, McLellan eliminated the fees for
registration and ownership transfer of firearms. The government also capped the
registry component of the program at $25 million a year, down from as high as
$48 million. The total budget of the Canadian Firearms Centre, which also
includes licensing and education programs, was forecast to fall to $85 million
from $103 million.
Problems
continue. Global News reported Friday that the registry is so backlogged
bureaucrats are giving 770,000 licence-holders renewals of up to four years for
free.
Garry
Breitkreuz, the Conservative MP from Yorkton, Sask., who has been leading the
political fight against the long gun registry, said any expenditure review that
fails to address the program would lose all legitimacy. "If something goes
500 times over budget, can you think of any other program that should be at the
top of the list?" he said Saturday. "This should be No. 1 in their
expenditure review. Not only did it go way over budget, it's not returning the
benefits they said it would."
The Conservatives campaigned on a promise to scrap the gun registry altogether, saving $25 million to $100 million annually that the party said could be used to hire more RCMP and pay for a sex-offender registry.