Government gives gun owners $56M break

[GAP]

Government gives gun owners $56M break
TheStar.com April 21, 2008 Jim Brown The Canadian Press
Tories passing up cash that critics say could pay for registry
Article Link

OTTAWA–The federal Conservatives, who once denounced Liberal cost overruns at the national gun registry, have been passing up more potential revenue from gun owners than they've spent to run the registry since they took power.

Statistics provided to The Canadian Press by the RCMP list actual and projected operating costs for gun registration programs at $35.9 million over three fiscal years starting in 2006.

During the same period, under policies instituted by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, the government has refunded or is waiving an estimated $56.5 million in licensing fees from gun owners.

The Mounties maintain that registration and licensing are different procedures, with separate budget envelopes. They say licensing income shouldn't be viewed as offsetting the administrative costs of registration. Opposition MPs reject that interpretation and say the figures confirm what they've always believed – that Conservative policy has been driven by philosophical opposition to gun control, not by cost-saving concerns.

"This government, if it ran the registry appropriately and did not waive the fees, in fact would be making a profit," said Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal public safety critic. "If it doesn't want to make a profit, I understand that. Then we should reduce the registration and licensing costs, but ensure the registry remains viable."

NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said it's common sense that the licensing-registration system should be viewed as a whole and should operate on a break-even basis.

The Tories have set a different course because they've been ideologically blinkered, said Comartin.

"It was all about satisfying that really hard-core, right-wing vote – people opposed to the registry. It had nothing to do with business practices," said Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh).

Day, who has long dodged questions about the financial impact of his policies, was not available for personal comment.

John Brent, a spokesperson for the minister, issued a statement reiterating past criticism of Liberal mismanagement and, like the Mounties, drawing a financial line between licensing and registration.
More on link

 

[GAP]

Tories extend amnesty for gun registry
By: Staff Writer 19/03/2010
Article Link

The Conservative government will once again extend amnesty for the federal long-gun registry, which the party has long denounced as "ineffective" and "wasteful."

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews will announce the one-year extension during an appearance at the Manitoba Wildlife Federation in Winnipeg, a senior government official said. The current amnesty, which has been renewed annually since 2006, expires May 16.

The amnesty program, which the Conservatives introduced after winning power in January 2006, allows gun owners to renew expired licences without incurring criminal liability for unauthorized possession of a firearm. All registry fees also are waived.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 19, 2010
end

 

[Loachman]

That's not a break.

Repealing the Firearms Act and ending the insane and immoral criminalization of firearms owners would be a break.

 

[GAP]

That's not a break.

Repealing the Firearms Act and ending the insane and immoral criminalization of firearms owners would be a break.

Not until if/when they get a majority....

 

[Fishbone Jones]

It's not a break. Whatever was lost in revenue from fees uncollected is saved, in likelyhood, by triplicate in processing fees paid to government workers. The savings are to the taxpayer. And all this for a little 3x4 piece of paper that saves no lives and makes criminals of law abiding owners should they lose it or forget it at home.

 

[a_majoor]

Politics being what it is these days, the rational choice of ending a $2 billion dollar boondoggle isn't available. Even in a majority situation, I can imagine the deafening noise when the axe finally falls.

Just remember the hue and cry for diminishing funding to inconsequential arts programs (in a fit of perfect irony, Paul Gross defended government funding by telling us the arts industry generates revenues of $8 billion/year). Political rent seekers will fight to the last taxpayer to keep their perques and privilege, the only effective way to end this is either to have political balls of steel, or find ways to set rent seekers against each other.

 

[GAP]

Ignatieff says Liberal MPs must vote against Tory gun law
By: THE CANADIAN PRESS 19/04/2010
Article Link

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he'll require his caucus to oppose the next vote to scrap the controversial long-gun registry.

The move aims to save the registry and avoid a split in the Liberal ranks after some opposition MPs voted for the government legislation last time around.

To make it more palatable to his MPs - especially those from rural areas - Ignatieff says he'll propose changes to the registry, including decriminalizing the failure to register long guns.

He says a new Liberal government would also eliminate fees for new licences, renewals and upgrades.

And Ignatieff says his party would "streamline" the registration process.

Some Liberal and New Democrat MPs voted with the Tory government when the private member's bill came up for second reading in November.

If passed on its third and final reading, Bill C-391 would scrap the registry - created by a Liberal government a decade ago - and destroy its data on about seven million shotguns and rifles.

The legislation was tabled by Manitoba Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner.
End

 

[Loachman]

Ignatieff is an idiot.

He cannot "decriminalize" it.

It's part of the Criminal Code, because that is the only way that the federal government could regulate property, which is the purview of the Provinces.

The only penalties that are available in the Criminal Code are criminal ones.

The only way that he could do that would be to strip the requirements to register and get a licence from the Criminal Code, and then the whole thing would collapse.

It's only the threat of lengthy jail terms that "convinced" anybody to comply in the firsst place.

Ignatieff is an idiot.