A Briefing Note prepared by RCMP Superintendent Mike Buisson, Registrar for the Canadian Firearms Registry, dated September 10, 1999 states: "The lower than planned application intake levels for both licences and registrations, as well as the unacceptably higher than anticipated error rates in applications is raising concern about the success of the firearms program."

"Finally, the senior bureaucrats in the gun registry are acknowledging a major problem we warned them about over a year ago," said Breitkreuz. "Last June, the Minister’s own group of firearms experts recommended that the licencing deadline had to be extended because the bureaucracy couldn’t possibly process all the applications in the time remaining. Justice Minister Anne McLellan ignored this common sense advice. I guess she would rather have the whole thing blow up in her face and try to muddle through to the next election. Then again, maybe she isn’t planning to run in the next election?"

Another RCMP document dated November 1-2, 1999 obtained by Breitkreuz describes the registry’s dilemma: "First, the rate of errors made in the completion of these forms has been much higher than predicted; fewer than 1% of Registration Applications and 10% of Licence Applications arriving at the Central Processing Site are without error. The intake of Licence Applications has been about 10% of the forecast level, and is dropping; the intake of Registration Applications has dropped to less than 30% of the forecast level, and is continuing to drop. Unfortunately, since Program Commencement, all the resources at our processing sites have been fully utilized in processing these very low intake levels due to the high error rate and, to a lesser extent, the relatively-poor application performance, many inefficient processes, and staff inexperience."

"The Liberal’s solutions to this quandary are typical: Don’t admit your mistake - hire more staff and spend more money," observed Breitkreuz. The Executive Summary explains: "The Verifier Network Team of the Canadian Firearms Registry is proposing to implement an outreach program based on the existing Verifier Network. The proposal involves paying Firearm Verifiers to assist individuals in completing their Licence and Registration applications, and providing an incentive for those Verifiers to find ways to have applicants come forward in large numbers."

Page 3 of the document explains the magnitude of what the Liberals are proposing: "The Verifier Network is an established hierarchy of nearly 3,000 [soon-to-be-paid] volunteer Firearms Verifiers spread across Canada in a way that is roughly proportional to the density of firearm owners. In the most-recently-proposed organizational structure, there are a total of 21 Provincial Coordinators and Regional Coordinators in place in full-time positions, and this number will grow to 35 when all the positions are filled. These coordinators will soon be supplemented with seventy to eighty Zone Coordinators who will work at the grassroots level with gun owners, ranges, clubs and hunters’ organizations within the communities." Breitkreuz added, "These new positions are in addition to the nearly 1,500 full time positions that I released to the public last week."

Even the Province of Ontario, which publicly opted-out of the gun registration part of the scheme and has challenged the legislation all the way to the Supreme Court, is cooperating with the federal Liberals: "The Province of Ontario is piloting the Zone Coordinator organization and has begun hiring 25 people for these positions in Ontario. The primary objective for having Zone Coordinators in place is to provide local support for the Verifiers in the form of easily-accessible coaching and issue-resolution capabilities, as well as face-to-face visits to track progress and solve problems. It is proposed to use this Verifier Network, including full-time and part-time staff and volunteers, as the core of a field-based outreach program in which verifiers will be paid for providing assistance to firearm owners in correctly completing Firearms Licencing and Registration Application forms."

"This new brainwave of an Outreach Program is based on a July 1999 pilot project in New Perlican, Newfoundland, revealed Breitkreuz. "The document claims this pilot project achieved ‘excellent results’. Only a self-serving bureaucrat or a desperate Minister could describe a project that employed 13 bureaucrats to process a total of 100 licence applications and 89 registration applications for a total cost of $19,782 ($188 per applicant or $62 per application) as a success!" exclaimed Breitkreuz. "And this is over and above the costs of processing the applications once they are sent to Miramichi, NB and then on to the RCMP in Ottawa."

Despite these high costs, the documents obtained by Breitkreuz reveal that Anne McLellan has given the new Outreach Program her blessing: "Nevertheless, the Minister of Justice was impressed with the results achieved, and has encouraged the Program to follow up on the outreach concept and to find cost-effective outreach methods that will achieve the same, or close to the same results."

Using the additional costs of ‘$188 per client’ approved by the Minister, Breitkreuz calculates that it could cost taxpayers between $470 million and $1.2 billion to licence the remaining gun owners and register their guns. "And this is on top of the $327 million the government has admitted it has spent already and over and above the average of $60 million a year the government announced they will spend for the next ten years. Does the Minister really expect anyone to believe that licencing and registration fees will cover this emerging billion dollar boondoggle?" asked Breitkreuz. "Maybe she’s taking lessons from Jane Stewart?"

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