Last Updated Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:14:46 EST
OTTAWA - Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan says she's disappointed that a Liberal backbencher wants to cut funding to the federal gun registry.
Roger Gallaway, the MP for Sarnia-Lambton, has called for a vote in the House of Commons on Thursday on whether to continue funding for the National Firearms Program.
The program was initially supposed to cost $2 million. But a report by the auditor general has pegged the true cost over the past nine years at more than $1 billion.
Gallaway says he supported the federal gun registry when it was first proposed in 1995. But he had no idea how much it would end up costing.
"I was told at that time that it would cost $85 million and that it would be a simple program; that it would be effective. Well, we now know that there's been $1 billion spent and that there's effectively no end in sight."
Gallaway has called for a vote in the House of Commons on whether to keep funding the gun registry.
McLellan says she isn't happy that a member of her own party is putting the future of the gun registry in jeopardy. "I would be disappointed if anyone did that but particularly disappointed when that person comes from the government and from the Liberal party."
With only a minority in the House, the Liberals can't guarantee they'll be able to win the vote.
Most Conservatives are against the program, as are some Liberals and New Democrats, so it may be the Bloc Quebecois that ends up keeping the gun registry afloat.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe says his 54 MPs will vote to continue the funding.
Written by CBC News Online staff
