Skyrocketing costs of the gun control registry in Canada and scathing criticism of the program by the Auditor General of Canada in December 2002 led the Canadian federal Justice Department to hire management consultants to examine the efficiency and the financial systems and controls of the Canadian gun control program.
With the information from the consultants' reports, in February 2003 the Canadian federal government announced an action plan to address the problems with the gun control program.
Goal of Gun Control Action Plan
The goal of the gun control action plan is to reduce the gross costs of the gun control program in Canada to approximately $67 million annually by 2008-09. The Canadian federal government expects some of these costs to be offset by revenues. The government also expects gross expenditures to increase slightly in 2003-04 and 2004-05 as the gun control program changes its infrastructure and business processes.
Here are the main points of the gun control action plan.
Moving Responsibility to Solicitor General
Responsibility for the gun registry is being moved from the Department of Justice Canada to the Solicitor General of Canada on April 1, 2003. The rationale is that the program is going from development to ongoing management, and the gun control program fits with other public safety programs run by the department of the Solicitor General.
Cost Reduction
Changes being made in organization and management processes to reduce the costs of the Canadian gun control program include:
- streamlining headquarters
- consolidating the processing sites in Miramichi, New Brunswick and Montreal. Quebec by January 2004
- implementing a Continuous Improvement Plan
- establishing national work performance measurement and cost standards with provinces and other partners to ensure consistency and cost control
- restricting computer system changes
- moving the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team out of the Canada Firearms Centre to the National Police Services of the RCMP to consolidate law enforcement functions.
Improvement of Service to the Public
To make it less difficult to register firearms:
- online registration of firearms was reintroduced in February 2003
- a 1-800 number is being maintained for telephone information requests
- a goal of 30 days has been set for processing properly completed firearms registration applications.
Seeking Input
The Canadian federal government will seek more input from parliamentarians, stakeholders and the public through
- consultations to be held in Spring 2003
- the establishment of the Program Advisory Committee of non-government management and systems experts to provide advice on the gun control program.
Accountability
Measures to improve the accountability of the gun control program are
- in fiscal year 2003-04, a report to Parliament on the full costs of the program across government, and consultations with the Auditor General in the process
- an annual report to parliament
- addition of a Comptroller to staff
- an annual audit and evaluation will review the main components of the gun control program on a three-year cycle, with the first report in 2005.
