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Martin targets gun registry
NEWS: A major overhaul is likely as Ottawa begins review, sources tell JANE TABER
By JANE TABER
UPDATED AT 3:20 PM EST         Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004
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OTTAWA -- Former prime minister Jean Chrétien's $1-billion gun registry is under review by the new Paul Martin government and likely will be significantly altered in a move that would appeal to Western Canada.
Among the changes being considered, sources say, is reallocation of some of the resources used to finance the registry to beef up other areas, such as policing or security at borders where illegal guns make their way into Canada from the United States.
A senior government official said yesterday the gun-registry legislation is not "a meaningful law." Most provinces and territories, including Alberta and British Columbia, have refused to comply with the legislation, which came into force last year.
Only one person has been convicted under the new law of failing to register a gun; there are estimates that more than one million guns are not registered.
However, the official said yesterday the review is not expected to recommend killing the registry.
"The question is, is it going to metamorphose into something else. . . . If we're going to spend this money, maybe there is a better way of spending it or siphoning some off to areas which need it."
Albina Guarnieri, Minister of State for Civil Preparedness, is conducting the review.
Prime Minister Paul Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, a Western Liberal MP who as justice minister in the Chrétien government was one of the key supporters of the legislation, consider the review a priority.
They asked the Mississauga MP and new minister to take on the registry review just after she was sworn in to cabinet last month.
"This is in the spirit of what [Finance Minister] Ralph Goodale announced, that everything in government is under review," Ms. Guarnieri said in an interview yesterday.
Ms. Guarnieri, who is a proponent of gun control, said she is not approaching the review with any "entrenched positions."
"Gun control is much more than a simple registry," she said.
Ms. Guarnieri said she will look at how efficiently public money is being spent and whether "Canadians are getting value for their dollars."
She also expectds to "co-involve" some Liberal colleagues, such as Paul Steckle and Rose-Marie Ur, two MPs from rural ridings in Ontario, who opposed the registry.
In fact, Ms. Ur cried during one particularly emotional caucus meeting last year as she asked Mr. Chrétien to reconsider his edict that Liberal MPs who voted against a request for $59-million more for the gun registry would be expelled.
Many Liberal backbenchers complained that they were rarely consulted during the Chrétien era, saying their role was simply to vote for government legislation.
Now the landscape has changed. Mr. Martin wants to address what he calls the "democratic deficit" and allow MPs a say in legislation and policy.
He has also said he wants to re-engage Western Canada and increase western representation in his government.
Revamping the costly gun registry would be one way to woo the West, where the program is so unpopular that Alberta even launched a constitutional challenge. It lost.
Ms. Guarnieri has expertise in the area of victims' rights and has worked closely with the police on various issues during her 15 years on the back bench.
And she said yesterday that the Firearms Centre, which oversees the registry, has made "some improvements" over the past year.
Ms. Guarnieri said she will work "expeditiously" on the review, hoping to complete it within several months. That means her recommendations would come in time for the federal election, widely expected in the spring.
Last year, the Liberal caucus erupted over the registry after a report by Auditor- General Sheila Fraser, tabled in December of 2002, said that implementing the program will cost more than $1-billion by 2005. When the program was first introduced in 1995, Canadians were told it would cost $2-million after the fees from licences and registration were recovered.
Ms. Fraser criticized the Justice Department for allowing the cost of the program to escalate without telling Parliament.
In a year-end television interview, Mr. Martin said he was concerned about the registry's cost.
"So what's really important is to get those costs, those ongoing costs down," he said, noting that there is a "great deal of good in the gun registry."
"But the basic point that's being made is that in fact we've got to make sure that money is available for health care. It's the number one priority."
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NEWS: A major overhaul is likely as Ottawa begins review, sources tell JANE TABER
By JANE TABER
UPDATED AT 3:20 PM EST         Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004
Advertisement
OTTAWA -- Former prime minister Jean Chrétien's $1-billion gun registry is under review by the new Paul Martin government and likely will be significantly altered in a move that would appeal to Western Canada.
Among the changes being considered, sources say, is reallocation of some of the resources used to finance the registry to beef up other areas, such as policing or security at borders where illegal guns make their way into Canada from the United States.
A senior government official said yesterday the gun-registry legislation is not "a meaningful law." Most provinces and territories, including Alberta and British Columbia, have refused to comply with the legislation, which came into force last year.
Only one person has been convicted under the new law of failing to register a gun; there are estimates that more than one million guns are not registered.
However, the official said yesterday the review is not expected to recommend killing the registry.
"The question is, is it going to metamorphose into something else. . . . If we're going to spend this money, maybe there is a better way of spending it or siphoning some off to areas which need it."
Albina Guarnieri, Minister of State for Civil Preparedness, is conducting the review.
Prime Minister Paul Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, a Western Liberal MP who as justice minister in the Chrétien government was one of the key supporters of the legislation, consider the review a priority.
They asked the Mississauga MP and new minister to take on the registry review just after she was sworn in to cabinet last month.
"This is in the spirit of what [Finance Minister] Ralph Goodale announced, that everything in government is under review," Ms. Guarnieri said in an interview yesterday.
Ms. Guarnieri, who is a proponent of gun control, said she is not approaching the review with any "entrenched positions."
"Gun control is much more than a simple registry," she said.
Ms. Guarnieri said she will look at how efficiently public money is being spent and whether "Canadians are getting value for their dollars."
She also expectds to "co-involve" some Liberal colleagues, such as Paul Steckle and Rose-Marie Ur, two MPs from rural ridings in Ontario, who opposed the registry.
In fact, Ms. Ur cried during one particularly emotional caucus meeting last year as she asked Mr. Chrétien to reconsider his edict that Liberal MPs who voted against a request for $59-million more for the gun registry would be expelled.
Many Liberal backbenchers complained that they were rarely consulted during the Chrétien era, saying their role was simply to vote for government legislation.
Now the landscape has changed. Mr. Martin wants to address what he calls the "democratic deficit" and allow MPs a say in legislation and policy.
He has also said he wants to re-engage Western Canada and increase western representation in his government.
Revamping the costly gun registry would be one way to woo the West, where the program is so unpopular that Alberta even launched a constitutional challenge. It lost.
Ms. Guarnieri has expertise in the area of victims' rights and has worked closely with the police on various issues during her 15 years on the back bench.
And she said yesterday that the Firearms Centre, which oversees the registry, has made "some improvements" over the past year.
Ms. Guarnieri said she will work "expeditiously" on the review, hoping to complete it within several months. That means her recommendations would come in time for the federal election, widely expected in the spring.
Last year, the Liberal caucus erupted over the registry after a report by Auditor- General Sheila Fraser, tabled in December of 2002, said that implementing the program will cost more than $1-billion by 2005. When the program was first introduced in 1995, Canadians were told it would cost $2-million after the fees from licences and registration were recovered.
Ms. Fraser criticized the Justice Department for allowing the cost of the program to escalate without telling Parliament.
In a year-end television interview, Mr. Martin said he was concerned about the registry's cost.
"So what's really important is to get those costs, those ongoing costs down," he said, noting that there is a "great deal of good in the gun registry."
"But the basic point that's being made is that in fact we've got to make sure that money is available for health care. It's the number one priority."
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.