PUBLICATION:
The Guardian (Charlottetown)
DATE:
2002.12.16
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Editorial
PAGE:
A6
COLUMN:
Diane Francis
BYLINE:
Diane Francis
SOURCE:
Financial Post
DATELINE:
TORONTO
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Heads
must roll over foul-up
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TORONTO
-- Liberal cabinet ministers Allan Rock, Anne McLellan and Martin Cauchon should
resign immediately over their incompetence, and coverup, involving the gun
registry's runaway costs. After all, this is what any self-respecting
Parliamentarian would do.
In
1994, Rock promised that "should the decision be to proceed with a system
of registration, it will only be on the basis that such a system can be
established through a reasonable outlay of capital costs" and will be done
in a "simple, efficient and cost-effective" manner.
He
estimated the net cost to taxpayers would be $2 million annually -- with $85
million to establish the registry -- because it would be self-financing through
registration fees.
Now
we know the registry is heading toward a cost of $1 billion and isn't even doing
its job. Some 25% of the registrants are inaccurate, according to police
estimates.
Back
in 1995, 20 Reform MPs warned the government it would cost a billion dollars to
register all the guns in Canada.
Then
justice minister Rock pooh-poohed the projections saying: "We have provided
our estimate of the cost of implementing universal registration over the next
five years. We say that it will cost $85 million. We encourage the members
opposite to examine our estimates. We are confident we will demonstrate that the
figures are realistic and accurate." -- Hansard, Feb. 16, 1995.
Such
reckless mismanagement aside, it's also worth examining just how much of a flop
this program is from a policy viewpoint.
The
notion of a registry was the policy solution offered in 1994 by Rock to stem
gun-related crimes following the Montreal massacre of 14 women by the son of an
Algerian Muslim wife-beater who changed his name from Gamil Gharbi to Marc
Lepine.
Let's
examine the policy's logic:
That
there is a link between registration of guns and a reduction in the murder
rate by guns.
That
everyone, including nutbars, terrorists and criminals, will register their
guns.
That
if they don't want to register, they will be forced to.
That
the registry will eliminate the black market for weapons.
The
bottom line is it was another stupid idea coming out of a Liberal cabinet
minister that was recklessly mismanaged by two successors.
In
1999, McLellan told the public the gun registry "investment is starting to
pay off".
Who
was it paying off for?
Was
it paying off for the Liberal supporters who got the government contracts to
work on the registry?
Or
was it paying off for the patronage appointees who were given well-paid jobs in
the gun registry bureaucracy?
The
prime minister made his usual imprint on the topic when he sidestepped his
responsibility and deflected the blame.
"We
expected that the provinces were going to help us and in some places they did
not; they made it very difficult for us. The gun lobbyists, the people against
it, made sure it was difficult to operate, and it cost more."
No
accountability. No brains. No consequences.
"The
Liberals still don't get it," wrote Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz.
"On Nov. 28, 2002, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon was still claiming in
the House of Commons that the gun registry is, 'worth proceeding with such a
fantastic value as protecting our society'."
That's
total rubbish.
Instead
of this registry, which the Liberals were duly warned against undertaking
because of costs, the policy options that should have been examined following
the Montreal tragedy were:
Increasing
police budgets to put more cops on the streets. For the $1 billion
squandered on a useless registry, governments could have put 10,000 more
police on duty.
Tightening
up immigration and refugee screening procedures to avoid the importation of
violent persons such as Lepine's father. But once inside, enacting policies
that would deport immigrants or refugees, like Lepine's father who had a
history of criminal assaults, swiftly before they psychologically and
physically damage their Canadian children and spouses. Then the government
could provide a victims' fund to these Canadians subjected to foreigner's
misbehaviour in the form of counselling and other help.
More
money to hire persons to properly screen, and treat, troubled children in
school such as Lepine before they do themselves, and others, harm.
Give
life sentences to anyone who is armed while committing a crime and severely
punish anyone selling black market weapons.
Diane Francis writes for the Financial Post. Distributed by the Southam Network.