Politics: Support for scrapping federal long-gun registry crosses party lines, even among N.B. MPs

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Rob Linke
Telegraph-Journal

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OTTAWA - In a vote of 164 to137 , MPs voted Wednesday night to scrap the much-maligned long-gun registry.

Although Liberals and NDP members supported the initiative, one Conservative MP described the vote - on a Conservative MP's private member's bill - as an achievement of the Conservative government.

Even the Tory MP for Miramichi - where more than 200 people work at the firearms registration centre - supported the Bill C-391.

"If they take away the long-gun registry, it won't affect the jobs that will be there," said Tilly O'Neill-Gordon.

"It won't mean a loss of jobs.

"And I have the guarantee of the prime minister that any jobs that would be lost would be replaced."

She said her constituents overwhelmingly opposed the gun registry.

Wednesday, the Conservative MPs present voted unanimously for the bill.

The minority Conservative government got help from 12 New Democrats, eight Liberals and one Independent to pass the bill, which would kill the registry, expunge records on more than seven million firearms and plow under a $1-billion taxpayer investment.

Madawaska-Restigouche MP Jean-Claude D'Amours was among the Liberals voting for the bill.

New Brunswick Liberal MPs Dominic LeBlanc and Brian Murphy voted against it.

So did Acadie-Bathurst NDP MP Yvon Godin.

Because it was a private member's bill, MPs were not told how to vote by their parties. The resulting "free vote" allowed the Tories to post a victory on what has been for them a defining issue going back more than a decade.

The vote in favour of Bill C-391 means it will go to the Commons public safety committee for study.

It has several hurdles to clear before becoming law - including the Senate, but come January, the Liberals won't control the Senate.

Jo-Anne Dawson, a union rep with the Public Service Alliance of Canada at the Firearms Centre in Miramichi, said the passage of the bill is a concern - but not the final outcome.

"It's one more chance it will be scrapped and some positions may be reduced," said Dawson.

"We're keeping up the message to keep the jobs here.

"We're not giving up."

The Conservatives, including MPs in New Brunswick, supported the bill.

Fundy Royal MP Rob Moore had called on every New Brunswick MP to support the bill. Within minutes of the vote, he issued a news release celebrating the fact "our government has been able to pass this measure to repeal the wasteful, ineffective long-gun registry."

On Tuesday, LeBlanc, the Liberal justice critic, was not ready to concede that Manitoba backbencher Candice Hoeppner's bill would pass.

LeBlanc said "the leader and I as justice critic have continually supported, as have police chiefs across the country, as do many provincial attorneys-general, the gun control registry.

"It's an important part of public safety.

"The police check the gun registry over 9,000 times a day.

"So our support for the gun registry hasn't weakened.

"But our support for the principle that private member's bills are free votes also remains consistent."

Murphy said the gun registry had a lot of flaws, but once created, "it's a bit like a bridge with cost overruns and, at the end of it, getting rid of the bridge."

He also cited strong support for the registry from police chiefs and his concern that the Conservatives can't be trusted to maintain jobs in Miramichi.

"Notwithstanding what the prime minister said in a campaign, you'd think there'd be a concurrent statement from the government that if this bill passes, here's the plan for Miramichi."

The registry was created in 1995 to reduce crimes by making every gun traceable. The Liberals estimated it would cost about $119 million, with fees covering all but $2 million. Instead, costs reached $1 billion by 2004-05.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his plan to kill the registry during the 2006 and 2008 elections.

- with files from The Canadian Press