PUBLICATION:              Edmonton Journal

DATE:                         2003.02.08

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  News

PAGE:                         A15

BYLINE:                     Tim Naumetz

SOURCE:                   Southam News

DATELINE:                 OTTAWA

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Minister fires gun control chief: Shuffle won't solve 'political' problem: Alliance MP

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OTTAWA - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has shuffled aside the head of the Canadian Firearms Centre as the first step in a major overhaul aimed at getting the controversial licensing and registry program back on its feet.

Cauchon said Friday the dismissal of Gary Webster of Edmonton, chief executive officer of the centre for the past two years, was the first of several measures he plans in response to a scathing report on the program from Auditor General Sheila Fraser and two separate inquiries conducted by private-sector firms.

Cauchon named Bill Baker, a senior bureaucrat in the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, to replace Webster and take charge of key technology and program changes over the next several months.

Webster, deputy head of the program before becoming its chief officer in 2001, was named a special adviser to the deputy minister of justice, Morris Rosenberg.

"Over the coming days, I will have some tough decisions to make as I prepare for my action plan for the gun control program," Cauchon said through a statement from his press secretary, Mike Murphy.

The justice minister said Baker, assistant commissioner in the revenue agency's compliance program branch, has a "proven track record and a reputation for getting the job done."

Government insiders say Baker, who was in charge of developing and implementing the revenue agency's strategic plan for the next five to 10 years, was a key "trouble shooter" in the top echelon of the massive agency, which contains one of the most complex computer data systems in the federal government.

The insiders said Webster is only the first of several top bureaucrats in the firearms centre who will be replaced over the next two weeks.

The measures are in response to a key study by management systems consultant Ray Hession, a former federal bureaucrat who reported this week on the red-tape and bureaucratic nightmare that has beset the registry over the last three years.

Hession predicted the government can limit the cost of the program to about $40 million a year over the next 10 years if it streamlines regulations and other licensing and registry requirements and begins collecting fees from owners to fund the scheme.

Fraser said last December the program's accumulated cost was expected to balloon to an expected $1 billion by 2005, 10 years after it was launched.

Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz said he does not expect Baker's appointment to eliminate the many problems facing the program.

"This is a political problem, not a bureaucratic one," Breitkreuz said. "The problems that they have created for the bureaucracy are insurmountable. It doesn't matter who they put in there; they're not going to sort out this mess."

Breitkreuz noted five million of the six million weapons registered so far remain to be verified, to ensure they match the details contained in registration papers, while at least 500,000 owners who have received licences still have not registered their firearms.

Another 500,000 owners have yet to apply for their ownership and acquisition licences.

Breitkreuz also argues the federal government has under-estimated the number of firearms in the country by 10 million.

The centre is in the midst of replacing its central computer system, which cost more than $160 million, with a new system whose design alone is costing $34 million. That work has been delayed, with suppliers now saying the system may not be ready for months, at an additional cost of $15 million.