February 9, 2003 - Gun Registration Financial Fiasco

The Justice department may have been slightly embarrassed by its cost over run of the Federal gun registration… but I doubt it. A program to register hunting rifles and other guns in Canada was initially slated to cost less than 200 million taxpayers dollars. Somewhere, the cost rose and the government just kept spending, without public approval and without public notices, the tune of a cool 1 Billion dollars of all taxpayers money!

When the Justice department was caught with their hands in your cookie jar, Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser demanded that Justice be accountable for their spending and more importantly why. Justice quickly hired two consulting firms to the tune of $150,000, to look into the registry costs. Are they at the bottom of your pocket yet? Hold on.

Having looked at these reports, I see nothing that suggests why the costs ignorantly rose to such amounts. Nothing contained in the reports suggested that the registry is working, nothing suggested that the registry would ever work, nothing suggested that crime will be reduced with your Billion dollars of spending. It did say that if the program is left as it is, unchecked, the cost could escalate another half a billion dollars!!!!!!

Each and every Canadian, hunter or not, should be very very angry and irate about this program. What is going to have to suffer next? Health Care? National Defense? Child Welfare? 1 and one half a billion dollars is nothing to be laughed at. There are only about 25 million taxpayers in this country. If Federal programs such as health care are not cut due to the registration of duck hunting guns, then where will the money come from? How about your pocket? Are you ready to see a substantial increase in your taxes?

The reports of the auditors did suggest some saving areas such as reducing the number of offices in the registry system, new software for the computer will have to be purchased and implemented and charging substantially more for firearms licenses. What?  It is estimated that a new hunter spends about $1000 in fees and such to go through the process before they ever fire a shot. In addition, I spend about $200 a year for various licences for specific game… another form of taxation. As well, I pay $60 for a FFL (federal firearms licence) and $25 in added taxes on top of all the sales taxes for each gun that I purchase. They suggest I pay more???

Before WW2, Canadians have had to register their pistols, short barreled guns. The law of restricted registration has deterred me from owning a legal pistol for sporting purposes. Has the 70 year old law had any effect on crime? Nope, the choice of the criminal shooter is still a small pistol or sawed off short barreled gun. Does the government not learn?

There are fearful investigations going on in Canada, trying to address why there are declining numbers of hunters in Canada? Are they daft or something? Come on people. Canada once had a thriving multi billion dollar sport hunting industry…. something like 65 billion a year. Governments have made every attempt to squash, demoralize, ridicule and eliminate sport hunting and hunters in Canada. The 65 billion dollar industry is lost and has never been replaced. Some suggest eco-tourism, where one can go on a holiday and see the big trees and land formations. Never happened. Not to the tune of 65 billion anyway.

Even during public hearings when the Provincial Tory government hired lawyers to defend the closing of Ontario’s spring bear season, those lawyers referred to us as “hired killers”. Nice image…..

I am getting tired of reporting on this issue but I cannot let this news pass, not from a perspective from a person that has been driven into social minority mostly due to ignorance.. And it is because us hunters are a nearly extinct  minority that Governments continue to “spit in my face”. But with the kind of un-reported spending on the gun registration issue it appears to me that they are hoarking up a goober and aiming it at all Canadians! Get ready to duck!

Does your MP and MPP know how you feel about the 1 ½ billion dollar hunting gun reigstry?