NEWS RELEASE

February 27, 2003                                                                                        For Immediate Release

NO REAL COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF GUN REGISTRY HAS EVER BEEN COMPLETED

“Government of Canada Regulatory Policy approved by Cabinet in 1999 has never been followed.”

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights, released an exchange of letters between himself and Mel Cappe, former Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet.  “It’s appalling that Parliament has been kept in the dark about the costs of the gun registry.  It’s even more appalling that Parliament has never been told if the benefits outweigh the costs as required by Cabinet-approved regulatory policies,” revealed Breitkreuz.  “They’ve passed 43 Orders-in-Council since 1998 and a proper cost-benefit analysis has still not been done.”

Breitkreuz released copies of the following documents to the media:

•        A letter dated October 31, 2001, to Mel Cappe, then Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, complaining about the Justice Department’s “contravention of Cabinet approved regulatory policy”. 

•        A reply from Mr. Cappe dated November 28, 2001, defending the Justice Department’s actions and his own oversight responsibility for administration of the Cabinet-approved regulatory policies.

•       A letter to the Auditor General of Canada dated June 27, 2002, outlining the violation of the Government of Canada Regulatory Policy approved by Cabinet in November of 1999.

Section 3 of the Cabinet-approved Policy Requirements states: “When regulating, regulatory authorities must ensure that the benefits outweigh the costs to Canadians, their governments and businesses.  In particular, when managing risks on behalf of Canadians, regulatory authorities must ensure that the limited resources available to government are used where they do the most good.”  Breitkreuz commented, “Putting policies in place that sound good but are never followed is like spray painting a manure pile – it still stinks.”

On Monday, while appearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts Auditor General Sheila Fraser repeated her claim that the Justice Department failed to follow Treasury Board’s approval processes and that the financial information provided by the department did not fairly represent the total cost of the firearms program thus far.

“Yesterday, for the umpteenth time, the Justice Minister refused to divulge the total consolidated cost of the gun registry for all federal departments and agencies.  How can he possibly expect any Parliamentarian to approve another $172 million in spending on the gun registry without knowing what it has cost so far?” asked Breitkreuz. 

“The Minister told Parliament that he has been running the gun registry at ‘minimum level’ but continued to pour about a million dollars a day into this Liberal money pit – even after Parliament pulled $72 million out of the Supplementary Estimates on December 5^th.  This government has no respect for Parliament or the decisions we make.  The Mulroney Conservatives paid a heavy price for this type of arrogance and so will the Liberals,” concluded Breitkreuz.

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