OTTAWA – The fate of the long-gun registry seems all but certain as the bill to kill it was passed by the House of Commons on Wednesday, but the government is keeping mum on when its highly sensitive data will be destroyed.
There are currently 7.8 million registered firearms, 7.1 million of which are classified as non-restricted, a designation that includes most common long-guns.
Once the long-gun registry is axed, it means someone will be charged with destroying the database and the millions of entries it contains.
It’s a decision the Conservatives have been fighting to see for 17 years, but Public Safety Minister Vic Toews would not say on Wednesday when the highly sensitive data, which includes information about the location of guns, would be destroyed.
“As soon as possible after the gun registry is in force,” he said of the timeline.
When pressed about how soon, Toews only said, “We’ll see.”
Critics of the bill have called for the information to be saved so police forces can use it to set up their databases. The Quebec government has even said its lawyers are considering filing an injunction on the destruction of data.
The Canadian Firearms Program, which administers the registry, reports that police agencies consulted the registry an average of 14,357 per day in 2010.
Regardless, the government has promised to destroy it.
“We’ve been very clear that in the election we said we would get rid of the long gun registry” said Toews, during a Wednesday press conference. “What is the registry? The registry is the data.”
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NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel urged Quebec to move quickly in their attempt to preserve the data before the government destroys the data.
Without providing precise details, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (which is responsible for the Canadian Firearms Program) said the data would be destroyed in-house when the time comes.
“If the legislation passes and once a date to implement its provisions is determined, Canadian Firearms Programs and other RCMP staff will implement the requirement to destroy non-restricted firearms registration records,” according to a statement from the agency.
Both paper and electronic records of the data will be destroyed.
Costs of data destruction to come from existing budgets
The NDP has raised questions about the cost of dismantling the registry, with MP Francoise Boivin warning on Monday it could have a big price tag.
“If you thought it cost a bundle with the Liberals, wait till the cost to destroy it with the Conservatives,” she said.
The controversial registry was introduced in 1993, but it wasn’t until 2003 that gun owners had to register their long guns. Setting up the tool was expected to cost taxpayers $2 million, but Canadians learned in 2005 the true cost was actually more than $1-billion.
An independent report commissioned by the firearms program in 2009 suggested that axing the registry could save between $1 million and $4 million annually.
The RCMP said, if the bill is passed, there would be no new funding provided to dismantle the gun registry. Instead, any costs will have to be absorbed by the existing budgets at the Canadian Firearms Program, which totaled $58-million last year.
Redundant jobs to be replaced: feds
At the Canadian Firearms Program in Miramichi, N.B. any savings generated by killing the registry are not expected to come from job cuts at the program.
Local union president Kellie McKay says the change would simply eliminate part of the job.
“As far as we know it is going to have a minimal impact,” said local union president Kellie McKay. “Everyone here is cross-trained so there are other jobs we can do within the office or within the program.”
Only about 10 per cent of an employee’s work at the centre has to do with registering guns, which means eliminating the registry would simply eliminate a task, not a job.
The government said the plan is that all individuals at the Miramachi office whose jobs become redundant will be offered a comparable federal position in the area.
The Conservatives unveiled plans in 2010 to create a civil servant payroll centre in Miramichi, N.B., which would move 550 jobs into the area.
At the time, Harper said the plan would make up for job losses in the firearms centre “many times over.”
Before becoming law, the proposed legislation to scrap the gun registry will have to be passed by the Senate and receive Royal Assent.
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