NEWS RELEASE

April 28, 2000

For Immediate Release

COST TO REGISTER EACH FIREARM IN CANADA JUST WENT OVER $82 PER GUN

"Rock promised a $2.2 million deficit for his useless gun registry. McLellan delivered a deficit of $320.6 million."

Powell River, BC – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville and Official Opposition Critic on Firearms Issues, reminded everyone of former Justice Minister Allan Rock’s June 13,1995 promise in the House of Commons that registering each legally owned firearm in Canada "will cost nothing like the $82 this man pretends" and accused the opposition of "trafficking in fictions". Using the government’s own numbers, Breitkreuz calculates that it will cost the government somewhere between $84 and $156 to register each legally owned firearm in Canada (see attachment). "Allan Rock even promised gun owners in Arnprior, Ontario that he would cancel the gun registry if the total cost exceeded $150 million," said Breitkreuz. "Well, Justice Department officials have finally admitted the gun registry has already cost at least $327 million and that it will cost an average of $60 million a year to operate the system for at least the next ten years. That’s $927 million on my calculator and I didn’t even add the additional hundreds of millions more in new spending planned for Outreach and Incentive Programs. So, are Allan Rock’s promises worth anything or does every Cabinet Minister want their own billion dollar boondoggle?"

"Allan Rock also promised Parliament that the full costs of the gun registry would be recovered from licencing and registration fees collected from responsible gun owners. Justice Minister Anne McLellan repeats this same promise every time she’s interviewed on the subject," Breitkreuz reported. "Treasury Board reveals that the gun registry only collected $6.4 million in fees in the first year of operation. That’s $6.4 million in fees versus $327 million in costs. The Liberals have refused all our Access to Information Requests to provide a copy of their ‘cost recovery plan’ showing us how they are going to collect $927 million from gun owners. Exactly how will the Justice Ministers be able to keep the promises they made in Parliament and in public?" asked Breitkreuz.

And, why did Allan Rock think it was going to cost so little? In 1995, the Justice Minister said in the House of Commons, "We are going to ask only that the owners mail in a card to identify themselves and their firearms. There will be a simple CPIC check to ensure that there is no order prohibiting the owner from having firearms and then he or she will be licenced and registered." According to documents obtained from the RCMP, this is how Allan Rock’s "simple" system is working five years later. "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."

On April 24, 1995, then Justice Minister Allan Rock tabled a document in the Standing Committee on Justice titled: Financial Framework for Bill C-68, An Act Respecting Firearms and Other Weapons. "Page 5 states that the total cost for his gun registration scheme over five years was projected to be only $85 million in start up costs plus $33.9 million in other costs for a total of $118.9 million less revenues from fees of $116.7 million for a net deficit of $2.2 million," said Breitkreuz. "Here’s what really happened in the first five years: total cost of $327 million less revenues from fees of $6.4 million for a net deficit of $320.6 million. It may actually be higher than this because the Liberals have repeatedly resorted to Cabinet secrecy to withhold the real budget numbers from Parliament and the public. Allan Rock promised a $2.2 million deficit and Anne McLellan delivered a $320.6 million dollar deficit. Liberal promises made in 1995 – Liberal promises broken in 2000. No wonder voters are FED UP!"

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Garry Breitkreuz Web Site: www.garry-breitkreuz.com

For more information, please call:

Yorkton Office: (306) 782-3309

Ottawa Office: (613) 992-4394

e-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca

 

 

WHAT WILL IT COST TO REGISTER

EACH LEGALLY OWNED FIREARM IN CANADA?

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP (Yorkton-Melville) – April 27, 2000

 

 

Total Cost of C-68 Firearms Control System

$327 million (Justice Dept. admitted to spending this much as of March 31, 2000)

$600 million (Justice Dept. estimate an average of $60 million/year for the next 10 years)

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$927 million Grand Total

Note #1: Does not include potentially hundreds of millions for new spending on Outreach and Incentive Programs

Government Estimate of the Number of Firearms in Canada

(1) New Estimated Number of Firearms – High = 11,020,808

(2) New Estimated Number of Firearms – Average = 8,482,396

(3) New Estimated Number of Firearms – Low = 5,943,984

Note #2: Numbers are from a 1998 Justice Dept. document obtained from the RCMP using Access to Information.

Note #3: The RCMP used these numbers to prepare financial forecasts for a submission to Treasury Board.

Note #4: Doesn’t account for the tens of thousands of new firearms coming into the country every year.

Estimated Cost to Register Firearms

(1) High Number of Firearms - $927 million ¸ 11.02 million guns = $ 84 per firearm

(2) Average Number of Firearms - $927 million ¸ 8.48 million guns = $109 per firearm

(3) Low Number of Firearms - $927 million ¸ 5.94 million guns = $156 per firearm