These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
Action Plan to Fix Registry
Mr. Gerald Keddy (South
Shore, PC): Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice has promised for
months to present an action plan on how he will fix the gun registry.
Are the people writing the action plan the same ones who ran up the
registry's billion dollar debt? And, when will the minister table his
action plan?
Hon. Martin Cauchon (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of
Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member had been following the
file he would know exactly what we have been doing since the tabling of
the Auditor General's report before Christmas.
We asked KPMG to table a report. As well, we asked Raymond Hession to
table another report. At the present time we are looking at 16
recommendations in Mr. Hession's report.
The system is actually working. We have to improve the system to be more
precise on the management side. We want to fix the problem. We will have a
good gun control program in Canada for the safety of all Canadians.
Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr.
Speaker, in the last two days there have been articles in the newspapers
that question the facts as stated in your ruling with respect to the
question of privilege by the hon. member for Sarnia--Lambton. The Speaker
said, and I would like to quote your words:
Practically speaking, what occurred on December 5, 2002 was that the
additional funding being requested for the Canadian firearms program was
withdrawn from the package of supplementary estimates that was finally
approved. This still left the Canadian firearms program with the original
$113.5 million authorized by the House last June in the main estimates.
That may not have been what some hon. members understood to be the case,
but that is exactly what happened.
Officials from the justice department and the Treasury Board told the
media that this was factually incorrect.
Would the Speaker be able to provide the House with clarification of this
important issue?
The Speaker: The Chair will look into the matter and come back to
the House, I hope very shortly, with the facts and figures that we relied
on in making the ruling which I believe was amply supported by the
documentary evidence that was tabled in the House and will refer the hon.
member to it in due course.
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