Critics of the federal gun registry say the new Liberal cabinet has a perfect opportunity to use a promised review of programs, spending and value-for-money to scrap or radically reform the controversial firearms program.
But they are not holding their breath.
“If this government and its much touted program and spending review do not wrestle this program to the ground, then this whole exercise will be shown to be a charade,” said Manitoba Canadian Alliance MP and justice critic Vic Toews. “The program is fundamentally flawed and that is not just my judgment but the judgment of the auditor general. But as finance minister, Paul Martin wrote the cheques that kept the registry afloat so I do not expect him to scuttle it now.”
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Gun control advocate Wendy Cukier from Ryerson University in Toronto, president of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control, puts her expectation of no change in a more positive light.
She noted that Martin voted for various gun control bills and funded the firearms program even as the cost was escalating through the 1990s from the initially promised $2 million net to hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I see Mr. Martin as a supporter of the program,” she said. “All programs are being reviewed, not just the gun legislation, and if it is value for money, I think they will find that the decline in the rates of robberies and suicides using long guns will be convincing evidence.”
The speculation that the expensive and controversial gun registry might be killed arose after Martin announced after his Dec. 12 swearing-in as prime minister that all programs and spending approvals by the previous Liberal government under prime minister Jean Chrétien would be reviewed. He seemed to be targeting programs and projects near and dear to Chrétien and the gun registry would qualify.
In a year-end interview with Global Television, Martin confirmed it would be reviewed but dampened any speculation it would be scrapped.
He said “everybody was very, very upset about the escalation in costs” in the gun registry program.
“And there’s a great deal of good in the gun registry if you talk to the police forces across the country,” said Martin. “So what’s really important is to get those costs, those ongoing costs, down.”
