37^th Parliament, 3^rd Session
(February 2, 2004 - )

Edited Hansard • Number 026

Monday, March 22, 2004

Hansard Pages 1519 – 1520]

Questions on the Order Paper

http://www.parl.gc.ca/PDF/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/Han026-E.PDF

    Hon. Roger Gallaway (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 7, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 26, 34, 35, 41 and 44.

[Text]

Question No. 7--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz:

    With respect to Auditor General Sheila Fraser's statement in her letter of November 6, 2003: “Earlier this year I advised the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts that our Office will consider a value-for-money audit on the firearms program when the program has been operating at a steady state, which Justice Canada has indicated could take three or four years.” (a) how long will it take and how much will it cost to fully implement the firearms program; (b) how much will it cost to maintain the program every year after it is fully implemented; (c) how much will the direct and indirect costs be for all government departments and agencies; (d) how much will all transfers to the provinces and municipalities cost; (e) how much will the contracts with private companies cost; (f) how much will all grants and contributions cost; (g) what are the “major additional costs” identified by the Auditor General; namely compliance costs and enforcement costs, up to this date and what will they be in the future; and (h) what have been and will be the costs to the economy?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.):

    With almost 2 million Canadians licensed to own firearms and almost 7 million firearms registered, the bulk of the initial program set-up has been accomplished. As reported in the Department of Justice's 2002-03 performance report, total federal government program costs to March 31, 2003, were $814 million. Approved Canada Firearms Centre funding for the current fiscal year which will end March 31, 2004, is $116 million. Costs of other government departments will be accumulated and reported as part of the CAFC's 2003-04 performance report.  The Government is committed to delivering the firearms program so that it can continue to meet its important public safety objectives in the most cost-effective manner.

Question No. 14--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz:

    William V. Baker, Commissioner of Firearms, testified before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on October 23, 2003 that the gun registry provides “a tool for police to trace firearms”, that “it does help police solve crimes and we do have incidents of this by being able to trace the origin of the firearm recovered from a crime scene”, and that police are “…using that information to help them, but it can help enforce a court order.”; since the government has been registering firearms since 1934: (a) what is the total number of attempted firearms traces; (b) what is the total number of successful firearms traces; (c) what is the total number of crimes that were solved as a result of these successful traces; (d) what is the total number of court orders enforced using the information from the gun registry; and (e) what is the total number of registered and unregistered firearms seized as a result of the enforcement of these court orders?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.):

    The national firearms tracing program was initiated in 1974, in cooperation with the U.S. alcohol, tobacco and firearms, ATF, tracing center. The primary goal of the program is to contribute to keeping Canadians safe and secure by providing necessary information to law enforcement authorities on firearms seized in the course of criminal investigations. Assistance is also provided to and by the U.S. ATF tracing center.  In implementing the program, the national firearms tracing unit was established. The unit currently consists of three RCMP regular members and remains an integral part of Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, CISC.  The national firearms tracing unit assists investigators in identifying owners of firearms and provides further information to police agencies regarding unregistered firearms such as: point of origin, name of retailer, name of purchaser.  In regard to a) in 2003, the national firearms tracing unit received 8,726 firearms tracing requests: 7,001 from Canadian law enforcement agencies; 1,471 from the U.S.; and 254 from international agencies. In 2004, up to February 13, the national firearms tracing unit received 1,717 tracing requests: 1,600 from Canadian law enforcement agencies; 99 from the U.S., and 18 from international agencies.  In regard to b) according to the national firearms tracing unit, there were 4,908 successful firearms traces made from January1, 2003 to December 31, 2003. Successful is defined as law enforcement authorities being provided with information on the firearm’s history to assist in their investigations. Firearms without serial number, caliber or make cannot be traced.

    In regard to c), d) and e) the national firearms tracing unit provides an operational service to law enforcement authorities, domestic and international. Follow-up information as to the use of a firearm trace result is not required by the unit; therefore CISC has no statistics for these questions. There is no agency in Canada, not even Statistics Canada, that can provide this type of information. The information would need to be collected by reviewing all files from all law enforcement agencies in the country who request a trace, which would be extremely labour intensive.

Question No. 15--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz:

    On February 16, 1995, Justice Minister Allan Rock stated in the House of Commons (Hansard, page 9708), “Registration will assist us to deal with the scourge of domestic violence.” For each year since 1995: (a) what is the total number of domestic homicides; (b) what is the total number of domestic homicides committed with firearms, by type of firearm and whether the firearm was registered or not; (c) how many of the suspected murderers were licensed to own firearms; and (d) in each case in which the homicide was committed with a registered firearm, why did the gun registry fail to prevent the murder?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.):

    The Canadian firearms program is an important element of the federal government's overall public safety efforts. The deadline for the licensing of individuals passed on December 31, 2000, and the deadline for the registration of firearms passed on December 31, 2002. The program is now beginning to enter the full implementation ongoing operations phase. Nontheless, since 1998 more than 12,000 firearms licences have been refused or revoked in view of public safety concerns and to respond to the potential for violence or injury.  The government is committed to delivering the firearms program so that it can continue to meet its important public safety objectives in the most cost effective manner.

Question No. 16--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz:

    —Given that the government has required the mandatory registration of handguns since 1934, how does it justify its past, current and planned spending on a long-gun registry when Statistics Canada’s Annual Homicide Reports for 2000 (Table 6, page 9) and 2002 (Table 8, page 16) show that the use of handguns in firearm homicides has been steadily increasing from 26.9% in 1974 to 63.6% in 2002, and that, conversely, firearm homicides with rifles and shotguns, which only started to be registered on December 1, 1998, dropped steadily from 65.8% to 24.8% over the same 28-year period?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.):

    The canadian firearms program is one of the key contributors to the government's goal of enhancing public safety and security for Canadians.  On February 21, 2003, the Minister of Justice, together with the Solicitor General of Canada, announced an action plan to improve management, enhance service delivery, and increase transparency and accountability. The program's action plan is being implemented successfully by the firearms centre. There have been important improvements in program efficiency and management over the past year. We are building on these improvements.  The government remains committed to delivering this important public safety program in the most cost effective manner possible.