NEWS RELEASE  

February 17, 2004                                                                                           For Immediate Release

COST TO PRIVATIZE GUN REGISTRY BALLOONS FROM $290 MILLION TO $371 MILLION

“Not once in 9 years of tracking gun registry costs have I ever seen a ‘downward revision’.”

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Deputy House Leader and Official Opposition Justice Critic for Gun Control, released another gun registry document stamped “SECRET” by the government.  This most recent “SECRET” report shows that the cost of privatizing the gun registry ballooned from $290 million to $371 million in just one year.  “The most outrageous thing about this document is that these costs have never been reported to Parliament,” said Breitkreuz.  “The second most outrageous thing revealed in these documents is that EDS Canada is still on the gun registry payroll.  This is the same company that the Liberals paid $227 million to for the first gun registry computer system – a system that had to be completely replaced.”

Last November, Breitkreuz released another “SECRET” government document dated January 9, 2003, that stated:  A $300M contract was awarded to Team Centra (a partnership between two companies, CGI Group and BDP Business Data Services) to design a new licensing and registration system ($34 million) and operate it over the next 15 years ($266M).”

This most recent  “SECRET” two-page document dated July 10, 2003, in ANNEX “B” of a Treasury Board Submission states: Since the original estimates were made, the CAFC, working with Team Centra, has gained additional experience in the detailed business solution requirements, future program volumetrics, and other aspects of Program operations.  The enhanced experience has led to an upward revision of the original cost estimates of the ASD initiative.  The current 15 year cost estimate, without economic price adjustment, is $371.56M as a result of negotiations concluded in July of 2003. (my underlining).  Another document dated June 25, 2003, referred to a Treasury Board submission for EDS being approved.

“Why do these contract reviews always result in an ‘upward revision’?  Not once in 9 years of tracking gun registry costs have I ever seen a ‘downward revision’,” reported Breitkreuz.  “The Prime Minister spent the entire weekend asking Canadians to trust him.  But why should we trust him to come clean on the true costs of the gun registry when he wrote most of the cheques for this soon-to-be two-billion-dollar Liberal liability as Finance Minister?”

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