By the time the federal government finishes the job of registering firearms, they may be dealing with phaser guns and light sabers, according to the latest information pried from the government's clutches under Access to Information. Meanwhile, the ballooning cost and expanding workforce associated with the gun registry are diverting scarce resources from policing.

The government is supposed to register all guns by January 1, 2003. In order to meet this deadline, the Canadian Firearms Centre must issue from 7,300 to 22,000 permits a day, depending on how many guns there are in Canada (estimates range from 7 million to 21 million).

But according to information obtained by Yorkton-Melville MP Garry Breitkreuz, the Canadian Firearms Centre is averaging less than 360 registrations per working day. At that speed, it may take between 77 and 233 years to complete the job.

Since the Canadian Firearms Centre began operating at the beginning of this year, only 49,000 firearms have been put into the computer. Most were antiques owned by museums, inventories of gun dealers or weapons from municipal police forces. Only 7,000 private weapons were registered.

As for the cost, in the last fiscal year the government admitted to spending $134 million on the registry. But when the legislation was introduced in 1995 by then-Justice Minister Allan Rock, start-up costs were estimated at $85 million, spread over 5 years, plus annual operating costs of $50-$60 million a year. The government has already revised the start-up cost to $120 million (an almost 50% jump).

As for costs that the government has not admitted, some critics say that taxpayers are on the hook for $1 billion, hidden away in numerous budgets.

Certainly personnel are being hidden under different budgets. Allan Rock initially claimed that the whole registration job could be done by the 200 employees of the Canadian Firearms Centre, but scores of others have been put to the task, including 221 Mounties in the Ottawa headquarters, and 20 Customs Agents at Revenue Canada. Another 77 firearms officers have been hired to work in provinces like Saskatchewan that are not cooperating with gun registration.

While taxpayer money and enforcement personnel are being thrown at the gun registry, policing is being severely squeezed. The RCMP was recently forced to halt training of new recruits at the Regina headquarters because of budget concerns, and the number of RCMP officers on patrol is also down. In British Columbia, for example, more than 400 of 5,000 RCMP positions are currently unstaffed.

Is this diversion of resources to the gun registry really worth it Statistics Canada has calculated that 2% of violent crimes in Canada are committed with firearms, and few people believe that registration will significantly reduce crime. Canadians might be safer if the resources spent on the gun registry were instead spent on police.

If you'll pardon the expression, it doesn't seem like taxpayers are getting much bang for their buck.