Posted on 02/03/2004 12:20:24 PM PST by neverdem
The final battle over the $1-billion federal gun registry is set to be waged over the next two months, with a senior Liberal MP telling constituents he believes the controversial program may die of "financial malnutrition" after a free vote in the Commons.
Registered 7-day subscribers to the Ottawa Citizen newspaper or electronic edition will enjoy full access to all OttawaCitizen.com content.
I'm surprised they don't raise the fees. They must be afraid of possible backlash at the polls.
Prime Minister Paul Martin indicated Wednesday that he will overhaul the federal gun registry, although he said he still backs the former Liberal government's gun registry legislation.
Mr. Martin is facing a tight upcoming federal budget, with a projected surplus of only $2.3-billion, $2-billion of which is earmarked for health care.
This week, during meetings in Ottawa, he is asking caucus members to find ways to trim spending from various government departments.
Some MPs are looking at the ballooning gun registry as a way of cutting costs. The registry had an original price tag of $2-million when it was introduced in 1995 but is now predicted to cost at least $1-billion.
Sources told The Globe and Mail this week that the Martin government is conducting a review of the registry and is looking at ways of streamlining it. They said it will likely be significantly altered — a move that is likely to appeal to opponents of the program from Western Canada.
“It's clear that there have been problems, there have been huge costs, and we have to review all that,” Mr. Martin said in Ottawa after a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday.
He said costs associated with the system must be contained.
However, Mr. Martin added that he continues to support the gun registry legislation. Later, the Canadian Alliance issued a statement calling on Mr. Martin to scrap the program.
“While minister of finance, Mr. Martin signed the cheques for the billion-dollar gun registry boondoggle, hiding from the flawed realities of the program. It is time Mr. Martin pops out of his hole and cancels this faulty program,” the statement read.
Other MPs, such as former solicitor-general Wayne Easter, said that scrapping the registry is not the answer.
“You're going to create the so-called gun wars between urban and rural Canada again,” Mr. Easter told CBC Newsworld earlier Wednesday. Many rural Canadians say the registry is unnecessary, while many urban Canadians are in favour of it.
Among the changes being considered by the Martin team, 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 Tuesday 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 Tuesday 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.
Mr. 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.
bwaaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa
Say... they'd be right at home in Boston. The Big Dig was budgeted at $ 2.5B; cost $ 15B plus (and they refuse to say how much over $ 15B it went, but there are a lot of Boston contractors having custom yatchs built in the UK...)
That's amusing.
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Paul Martin's blueprint for defence spending contained firm commitments to Canada's armed forces yesterday and included something that was notably absent from recent throne speeches — specifics.
The 23-page speech devoted three pages to Canada's role in the world, saying Canadians want their country to play "a distinctive and independent role in making the world more secure, more peaceful, more co-operative, more open."
"The government will make immediate investments in key capital equipment, such as new armoured vehicles and replacements for the Sea King helicopters," said Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson.
The government has already said the aging Sea Kings would be replaced by year's end.
It is also going ahead with the early purchase of replacements for its unarmoured Iltis Jeeps patrolling the Afghan capital of Kabul.
But until yesterday's speech, there was lingering doubt it would go forward with the multi-million-dollar purchase of 66 mobile gun systems, known in the United States as Strykers.
'Cute' is the word that comes to my mind.
This, though, scares the socks off me...
WASHINGTON: The politically charged US budget deficit will explode to an unprecedented $477 billion in fiscal 2004, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted.
In the decade from 2004 to 2013, the shortfall booms to a total $ 2.38 trillion -- nearly one trillion dollars more than the CBO had predicted in August, it said.
Canada has a federal budget surplus? We have a half a trillion dollar deficit, we are heading toward third world status and into bankruptcy. Since when did CAnada become more conservative than the united States?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.