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True cost of gun registry will be upsetting, warns public security minister
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OTTAWA (CP) - Canadians will be shocked by the true cost of the federal government's ill-fated gun registry, says new Public Security Minister Stockwell Day.
Day told The Canadian Press that figures bureaucrats have shown him during briefings for his new portfolio are much higher than previously thought. He would not divulge what the tab is, but said it's upsetting.
"Some of these numbers, when we get out all the numbers and when the auditor general releases them all very soon, eyebrows are going to go up," he said Thursday.
"People are going to be upset and they're going to have a right to be upset."
When the Liberals added the registry to the federal gun control program in 1995, they said it would cost taxpayers no more than $2 million. But the most recent estimates put the figure in the hundreds of millions of dollars, bringing the total cost of the gun program to more than $1 billion.
At last estimate, the gun program was said to be consuming $90 million a year to maintain.
Day said an auditor general's report will show that a lot of money was needlessly lost.
"I think what will grab people is the fact it didn't have to be this way, whatever the final number is, it could have been avoided."
Day is part of a group, including Justice Minister Vic Toews and longtime gun registry critic Garry Breitkreuz, looking at how best to kill the registry as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised voters during the election campaign that the registry would be scrapped and money redirected to public safety.
The Conservatives have called the registry a waste of taxpayers money that targets duck hunters rather than criminals.
Day said it may take more than just the $90 million from the registry to fulfil Tory promises of hiring 1,000 more Mounties.
"The cost of providing the safety and security that Canadians want, there's going to be a cost to that, and there's a possibility that not all of it will be found within the savings of the long gun registry.
"Will it be enough to offset what we're talking about in terms of 1,000 officers? Maybe yes, maybe no."
"But when you have new officers on the street, you have less crime and you're saving all sorts of money on investigations and prosecutions, keeping people incarcerated, so there are offsetting factors there."
©The Canadian Press, 2006
True cost of gun registry will be upsetting, warns public security minister
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OTTAWA (CP) - Canadians will be shocked by the true cost of the federal government's ill-fated gun registry, says new Public Security Minister Stockwell Day.
Day told The Canadian Press that figures bureaucrats have shown him during briefings for his new portfolio are much higher than previously thought. He would not divulge what the tab is, but said it's upsetting.
"Some of these numbers, when we get out all the numbers and when the auditor general releases them all very soon, eyebrows are going to go up," he said Thursday.
"People are going to be upset and they're going to have a right to be upset."
When the Liberals added the registry to the federal gun control program in 1995, they said it would cost taxpayers no more than $2 million. But the most recent estimates put the figure in the hundreds of millions of dollars, bringing the total cost of the gun program to more than $1 billion.
At last estimate, the gun program was said to be consuming $90 million a year to maintain.
Day said an auditor general's report will show that a lot of money was needlessly lost.
"I think what will grab people is the fact it didn't have to be this way, whatever the final number is, it could have been avoided."
Day is part of a group, including Justice Minister Vic Toews and longtime gun registry critic Garry Breitkreuz, looking at how best to kill the registry as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised voters during the election campaign that the registry would be scrapped and money redirected to public safety.
The Conservatives have called the registry a waste of taxpayers money that targets duck hunters rather than criminals.
Day said it may take more than just the $90 million from the registry to fulfil Tory promises of hiring 1,000 more Mounties.
"The cost of providing the safety and security that Canadians want, there's going to be a cost to that, and there's a possibility that not all of it will be found within the savings of the long gun registry.
"Will it be enough to offset what we're talking about in terms of 1,000 officers? Maybe yes, maybe no."
"But when you have new officers on the street, you have less crime and you're saving all sorts of money on investigations and prosecutions, keeping people incarcerated, so there are offsetting factors there."
©The Canadian Press, 2006
