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Posted on 12/06/2002 5:37:25 PM PST by knighthawk
Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, wants us all to know that we should not concern ourselves with the sky-high cost of his government's gun registry. "Yes, there were cost overruns," Mr. Chrétien said on Wednesday. "It was more than we expected, but the system is in place and it's a good system, and it's very good for Canadian citizens."
The cost of that "very good" system, as we now know courtesy of this week's Auditor-General's report, will soon reach $1-billion. That is, to say the least, a far cry from the $85-million maximum the government had promised when it began implementing its gun control scheme in the mid-1990s, and 500 times as much as the $2-million net cost (after recouping funds through registration fees) that it once forecast. But of course, most of us did not know about these spiralling costs until this week's report, because Mr. Chrétien and Co. have spent the past several years hiding them both from Parliament and from the general public.
With that in mind, we can only hope that reassurances from Mr. Chrétien and from Martin Cauchon, the Justice Minister, will fall on deaf ears. But just in case there are still a few Canadians willing to accept Mr. Cauchon's pledge to "do better," we offer the following trip down the memory lane of Liberal gun control assurances:
- "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." (Allan Rock, then the justice minister, lays the groundwork in 1994.)
- "When people have had a chance to look at the details, see that's it's going to be simple to comply with, the cost is going to be modest, it's phased in over a reasonable period, I wonder how many at the end of the day will be against it." (Mr. Rock explains how the system will be "simple, efficient, and cost-effective," also in 1994.)
- "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 the figures are realistic and accurate." (Mr. Rock, in 1995.)
- "We think we're still on target ... [But] there are uncertainties about some of the cost elements." (Assistant deputy justice minister Richard Mosley, before a Parliamentary committee, in 1996.)
- "Our investment is starting to pay off ..." (Then justice minister Anne McLellan, in 1999.)
- "Allan Rock ... indicated that startup costs ... would be $85-million. Last year I indicated ... that the startup costs had in fact increased and would be $120-million." (Ms. McLellan, in 1999.)
- "The firearms program will not divert resources from other important programs or police budgets ... The new registry continues to prove its value in terms of public safety ... In short, the system is doing its job despite efforts of the gun lobby to discredit it." (Ms. McLellan responds to criticisms in a 1999 letter to The Edmonton Journal.)
- "The total costs over the five-year period from 1995 to 2000 ... are $327-million. The original projection was approximately $200-million for that five-year period." (Ms. McLellan, in 2000.)
- "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." (Mr. Chrétien, earlier this week.)
Ah, of course, it's all the fault of people who opposed this pointless and costly program in the first place, not of the duplicitous government that sold the public a bill of goods and then stiffed them for the bloated cost. Even as it offered many of the promises and reassurances listed above, the government must have known full well that it was misrepresenting matters. Its effort to slough off blame is a fitting end to a shabby tale of insouciant waste and overweening arrogance.
But that's what it isn't: an end. The program is still in place, still wasting money and still attacking Canadians' God-given right.
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