PUBLICATION:
Edmonton Journal
DATE: 2003.02.09
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Opinion
PAGE:
A16
COLUMN:
Lorne Gunter
BYLINE: Lorne Gunter
SOURCE:
The Edmonton Journal
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Cauchon misleads the House again: There's no limit to Liberal deceptions, and no limit to gun registry costs
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Being
Liberal means never having to say you're wrong - ever. Or ever having to reform
your ways, even when you're caught perpetrating a billion-dollar fraud -
especially when you are caught perpetrating a billion-dollar fraud.
You
don't even feel an obligation to stop lying to ... er, um, misleading the House
of Commons.
A
billion here, two billion there, so what if it goes mostly to Liberal
constituencies and donors? A falsehood, a coverup, a sneer at voters, a shrug -
it's all justified. If not for you and your party, national affairs would fall
into the hands of ... well, it's just too scary to think of anyone else in
charge of Canadian government. So all manner of deception and malfeasance can be
written off if it keeps you, the effulgent Liberal party, high in the polls and
in charge of Ottawa. You are so good for the country, so morally, culturally and
intellectually superior, the rules don't (and shouldn't) apply to you.
So
it was no surprise this week -- no surprise at all -- that Justice Minister
Martin Cauchon misled the Commons yet again on the cost of the gun registry.
Cauchon tabled two reports, which together cost taxpayers nearly $200,000. The
first was a cursory audit by the accounting firm of KPMG. The second was an
administrative review by Ray Hession, a former senior civil servant, and now a
respected public-management consultant.
The
minister tabled them as though he were doing MPs and Canadians a favour. He told
the Commons, "I did not have to table these two reports in the House; I did
it because I want to work in a very transparent way." And don't think we
plebeians aren't grateful, Your Magnanimousness.
But
of course, Cauchon being a Liberal and the subject being the gun registry,
transparency was the last thing on his mind.
He
withheld the 65 pages of supporting documents that went along with Hession's
27-page report. And guess what. Within those 65 pages are budget projections
that show the gun registry is still 10 years away from being completely
functional and will cost another $541 million before it is fixed. So the
$2-million program, which mushroomed to $1 billion, will really cost $1.5
billion before it is fully up and running. And that is very likely an
underestimate.
Liberals
and reporters used to laugh at Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz, his
party's firearms critic, when he would predict that setting up the registry
would cost $1 billion. Now, if Breitkreuz were to start predicting it would
consume $2 billion, who would scoff -- other than the Liberals, of course?
Over
the next two years, according to Hession, the registry will cost nearly 25 per
cent more than the $175 million claimed by the Liberals. Hession pegs the total
at nearer $220 million.
Both
projections put the lie to Cauchon's Dec. 5 claim in the Commons that "the
big spending is behind us." The big spending is clearly anything but over.
The computer system is still a mess, and won't be corrected until at least the
end of this year, in Hession's estimation. Then there is the need to verify
every single gun registered. As Hession concluded, "I don't care if you put
Superman in charge," finishing the registry would still be "a tough,
tough job."
Breitkreuz
has asked the Speaker of the Commons to censure Cauchon for "deceiving the
House and its members, falsifying documents" and impeding the ability of
MPs to perform their duties by supplying them with misleading information. It is
absolutely clear Cauchon is guilty in an moral sense. What is unclear is whether
he did, technically, violate Commons rules.
The
Speaker is expected to rule this week.
What
is also clear is that Cauchon and the Liberals intend to use Hession's report,
as well as the one from KPMG, to whitewash their decision to keep the registry
open. A government with any shame at all would have declared a mea culpa after
the auditor general's report in December, begged for forgiveness, then locked
the doors and shuttered the windows of the registry.
But
not the Liberals. They thought up this elaborate scheme, so they are sure it is
therefore enlightened. If it is not working, the fault must lie other than with
the basic concept.
Two
weeks ago, Cauchon insisted the Liberals would bull ahead. "We will keep
proceeding with gun control because it is about public safety." So Friday,
the minister claimed to have dismissed Gary Webster, the chief executive of the
Canadian Firearms Centre, as the first step in a major overhaul aimed at
correcting the flaws in the registry. Except, of course, Webster wasn't
dismissed. He was kicked upstairs to become a special adviser to the deputy
minister of Justice.
Cauchon
said Webster's shuffle was just the first of "some tough decisions" he
will make as he prepares an "action plan for the gun control program."
Yes,
tough decisions; tough in the same sense that Webster's promotion was a firing,
tough in the same way that the minister's failure to divulge another
half-billion in registry spending was "transparency," and in the same
way that the registry is about "public safety."