NEWS RELEASE

February 14, 2002                                                                                                   For Immediate Release

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 58-PAGE “VERBAL” REPORT REVEALS COVER UP

Two-year-old document reveals Justice Department deception.  “What are they trying to hide?”

Yorkton – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, the Official Opposition’s gun control critic, released another damning document about the Liberals badly botched gun registration scheme.  It took almost a year, two access to information requests and two complaints to the Information Commissioner to get the 58-page, $75,000 PricewaterhouseCoopers report dated May 2000 and titled: Canadian Firearms Program – Update to an Efficiency Review Conducted in April 1999.

“On May 23, 2001, Justice Department officials told my office that the report wasn’t finished and yet the PricewaterhouseCoopers report is dated a full year earlier,” reported Breitkreuz.  On December 3, 2001, the Department of Justice said that no copy existed because the report was ‘delivered verbally to management.’  Finally, on January 31, 2002, under pressure from investigators in the Office of the Information Commissioner, the Justice Department sent me a copy of the report.”

Breitkreuz issued a news release on November 29, 1999, outlining the main deficiencies found by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in their April 1999 report.  A copy of this news release is available at: http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/Fire54.htm.  “At the time, the Justice Department said all the problems had been corrected.  This newest PWC report clearly states that departmental officials were less than honest in making that claim.  I bring this up because the same officials will no doubt make the same claims about this report,” said Breitkreuz.

Here’s a sample of what PricewaterhouseCoopers found this time:

• only 9% of the expected volume received; of those, only 60% had been processed through card production;
•  at the time of our review, there was a backlog of 70,000 unopened registration applications;

•         backlogs exist across most of the operation;

•         the window of opportunity has passed;

•          the organizational structure of the Program…is still in ‘project mode’ with management by committee;

•         there are still no standards and incentives for overall program performance;

•        operational capacity does not exist to meet anticipated demand;

•        records management and paper-based work flow impede productivity;

•        the ‘end-state’ operating model is not yet clear;

•        there are no agreed to performance standards or service level agreements; and 

•        the content and timing of Release 4 is a major risk. 

One more piece of disturbing news in the report is that, in May of 2000, the CEO of the Canadian Firearms Centre, Maryantonett Flumian had already established that the department would miss the licencing deadline of December 31, 2000, by six months.  “This was completely contrary to what the Minister and her officials were telling the media at that time,” revealed Breitkreuz.  On April 15, 2000, the Edmonton Journal reported: But Flumian said she will not ask for an extension of the deadline.  She is confident of full compliance by year’s end.  On January 31, 2002, the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal reported: The Canadian Firearms Centre will meet its target of registering the bulk of firearms in Canada by January 1, a spokesperson said Wednesday.  “This document shows they lied last time, why should anyone believe them this time?  It should make everyone wonder, what are they really trying to hide?” asked Breitkreuz.

For a brief synopsis of the report please click here.

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