Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security

Canadian Firearms Program

(Chapter 10—December 2002 Report of the Auditor General)

(Chapter 4—May 2006 Status Report of the Auditor General)

27 May 2010

Sheila Fraser, FCA
Auditor General of Canada

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to discuss our previous audits of the Canadian Firearms Program, that is, Chapter 10 of our December 2002 Report, and Chapter 4 of our May 2006 Status Report. With me today is Wendy Loschiuk, Assistant Auditor General responsible for our audits of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

At the outset, I should note that we have not conducted detailed audit work on the program since 2006. Therefore, we are not in a position to discuss events or issues that have arisen since that time. In addition, we have not audited the effectiveness of the program or the social implications of the firearms policy, and we do not have a view on the proposed legislation.

Our 2002 Report examined the changing costs and scope of the Canadian Firearms Program, from its creation in 1996. One of our major concerns was the lack of information that was provided to Parliament on the costs of the program and on the escalation of those costs.

At the time of our audit, the Department of Justice Canada estimated that it had spent about $688 million, and told us that it expected this to reach $1 billion by the end of the 2004–05 fiscal year. However, we found problems with the recording of the costs of the program in that the full costs were not estimated and reported. In addition, during the preceding years, the Department had changed its costing methodology along with its financial systems and could not provide us with consistent cost information.

In our 2006 audit of the Firearms Program, we examined whether the government had made progress in recording and reporting on the full costs of delivering the Firearms Program since our 2002 audit. We also examined the management of the Canada Firearms Centre.

We found that the government had made satisfactory progress in recording and reporting the full costs of the program. At that time, we noted that the annual expenditures for the Centre had decreased from $117.3 million, in the 2002–03 fiscal year, to $71 million, in 2004–05. We also noted improvements in the handling of the large volumes of applications, as well as in reporting to Parliament.

In May 2006, the responsibility for the Canadian Firearms Program was transferred to the RCMP. We have not conducted any detailed work on the Firearms Program since that date.

Mr. Chair, thank you for your attention. This concludes my opening statement. I would be happy to respond to any questions the Committee may have.