PACP Committee Report
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Dissenting Opinion —
of the Conservative Party
Report — Canadian Firearms Program of the May 2006 Report of the Auditor General of Canada
The dissenting members hold that they cannot support the second part of Recommendation 4 of this report. The recommendation is without substance or foundation, and in particular, ignores the following:
- In Paragraph 4.8 of the Auditor General’s May 2006 Report, the Auditor General states, “We did not examine the effectiveness of the program or its social implications”. [4]
- At the outset of deliberations, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts instructed all
committee members not to debate in advance all questions or arguments based on their views of
the effectiveness or lack thereof of the program. To quote the Chair:
Finally, I would ask members to be aware that this committee deals with the financial issues, with the propriety, the regularity, the economy of the issues at hand and not with the policy: whether or not this country ought or ought not to have gun control. That is a policy issue to be decided by the government of the day, and this committee has no opinion, of course, on that particular issue. I would ask members to direct their questions accordingly. [5]
- There was no evidence, testimony or expert opinion given by the Auditor General or any of the witnesses to support this recommendation. Conversely, the evidence in the report raises more concerns about the utility of the long-gun registry.
To conclude, it is the dissenting members’ position that there was no evidence or analysis given to the committee to support the second part of Recommendation 4.
The dissenting members however reaffirm their support for all other aspects of the report.
Brian Fitzpatrick,
Conservative M.P. for Prince Albert
Vice-Chair, Standing Committee on Public Accounts