EDS Canada gobbles up 57% of original $85 million estimate for gun registry
3 February 2000
"This consulting firm has exceeded their original estimate by 325% but the Liberals just keep on paying!"
Yorkton - "Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville and Official Opposition Firearms Critic, took the public another step closer to the truth about the out-of-control spending on the Liberal government's fatally-flawed gun registration scheme. "On April 25, 1995, then Justice Minister Allan Rock, told the House of Commons that the cost for setting up the Canadian F irearms Registration System would be $85 million spread over five years.
This week, I learned that one consulting company, EDS Canada, has already signed contracts worth $48,986,469.70," revealed Breitkreuz. "That's 57.6% of the Liberal's original $85 estimate to set up the whole registration system.
Breitkreuz released the results of his Access to Information (ATI) Request he received from the Dept. of Justice after waiting four and a half months and filing a complaint about the delay to the Information Commissioner. The documents show that in November of 1997, EDS Canada started out with two contracts - one worth $14,000,000 and a second worth $1,095,614. Through a series of five revisions the original fourteen million-dollar contract has escalated by 325% to $45,487,000 and still has more than a year to run. The second contract has increased by 319% to $3,499,469.76 after six revisions.
"In the meantime, Justice Minister Anne McLellan is desperately trying to convince Canadian taxpayers that the start-up costs for the Liberal gun registry topped out at $120 million. "If that's true, why is she using the Cabinet secrecy excuse to hide the true costs for the registry. How can she claim the registry is fully implemented when such a small number of guns have been registered (only 319,369 as of Jan 14, 2000) and so few gun owners have applied for licences (only 212,864 as of Jan 14, 2000)?" asked Breitkreuz. "If the registry is fully implemented as the Minister says,why is she still approving wildly escalating consulting costs for EDS Canada and extending their contract deadline to March 31,2001?"
Government documents released to me over the past year indicate that there may be as many as 1,000 bureaucrats (including 391 RCMP employees) working on the federal firearm registry and for the separate Quebec registry. The documents also reveal that the total cost has now exceeded $300 million and only about 2% of these costs have been recovered in user fees," said Breitkreuz. "I would like to remind everyone of the Justice Minister's talking points dated May 25, 1995 which said, 'No large bureaucracy is needed to administer the registration system. Every effort will be made to keep the system simple and cost effective'." I guess it's all a matter of how a Liberal defines the terms: 'no large bureaucracy', 'simple and cost effective' when they are trying to ram a bogus bill through Parliament. Maybe they are hoping no one will remember what they said five years after the fact," concluded Breitkreuz.
For more information,
please call:
Yorkton Office:
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992-4394
e-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca
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