Follow-up to arming border guards
Nov. 3rd, 2006 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnauCost estimate for arming border guards doubles
Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, November 03, 2006
OTTAWA - The Canada Border Services Agency now estimates it will cost $1billion over the next decade to arm land and marine border guards, roughly doubling the previously announced yearly cost of the program.
The new figure was revealed by CBSA legislative-affairs director Candace Breakwell at a parliamentary committee reviewing cost estimates for the Public Safety ministry.
One of the most outspoken critics of the program, Liberal MP Mark Holland, immediately seized on the new figure, accusing the Conservative government of hiding the "true costs" of the program.
"One billion dollars is a shock. It's a massive, massive number," said Holland, the Liberal critic on border security. "It's certainly heading in the direction of looking like a boondoggle."
But in an interview, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the new estimate includes the cost of hiring about 400 border guards and expanding training facilities and infrastructure.
The Tories promised in the last election they would arm the country's border guards to enhance border security and protect the guards. Critics argue the plan will actually put border guards and the public at greater risk while wasting taxpayers' money.
The 10-year program, which will involve arming roughly 4,800 border guards, was launched this year.
This year's federal budget earmarked $101 million for this year and next, of which $58 million will go to training and support and $43 million to infrastructure and equipment. The current average annual cost of the program is therefore $50.5 million.
But the $1 billion estimate works out to an average of $100 million per year.
Holland said he was expecting the startup costs to be higher than those in the later years of the program. But the $1 billion figure suggests the annual costs will in fact escalate over the life of the program.
Day said the increase in the average yearly cost of the program can partly be explained by the fact that the number of border guards trained per year will accelerate. He said the number will eventually hit about 600 border guards per year.
As reported by Canwest News Service last month, the CBSA has signed an agreement with the RCMP under which "master trainers" appointed by the Mounties will train a small group of CBSA officers to teach fellow border guards how to use a firearm.
The CBSA has started recruiting officers who will train their colleagues to use firearms. The agency is aiming to deploy the first armed guards in August.
Holland has derided the plans as "training lite," arguing that border guards should not be training other guards to use guns.
Day defended the approach, saying the RCMP will ensure a higher quality of training than if the department contracted out the work.
''It's definitely the superior way to go,'' he said.
But Holland said the government's scaled-back approach to training begs the question of why the annual costs of the program appear set to increase. "You have to ask, what is included in this billion? What exactly are we getting for that? And alternatively, what could we be getting $1 billion spent in a different way?"
At Holland's urging, the Commons public-safety committee has agreed to hold three days of hearings on alternatives to arming border guards, and the costs and consequences of the current plan.
Update to http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/121055.html
A billion dollars for a gun registry that
didn't/
won't/
can't work,
a billion dollars to give pistols to border guards that will
never be used/
used on each other, by accident or design/
only be waved in the faces of uppity tourists,
sigh....
Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, November 03, 2006
OTTAWA - The Canada Border Services Agency now estimates it will cost $1billion over the next decade to arm land and marine border guards, roughly doubling the previously announced yearly cost of the program.
The new figure was revealed by CBSA legislative-affairs director Candace Breakwell at a parliamentary committee reviewing cost estimates for the Public Safety ministry.
One of the most outspoken critics of the program, Liberal MP Mark Holland, immediately seized on the new figure, accusing the Conservative government of hiding the "true costs" of the program.
"One billion dollars is a shock. It's a massive, massive number," said Holland, the Liberal critic on border security. "It's certainly heading in the direction of looking like a boondoggle."
But in an interview, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the new estimate includes the cost of hiring about 400 border guards and expanding training facilities and infrastructure.
The Tories promised in the last election they would arm the country's border guards to enhance border security and protect the guards. Critics argue the plan will actually put border guards and the public at greater risk while wasting taxpayers' money.
The 10-year program, which will involve arming roughly 4,800 border guards, was launched this year.
This year's federal budget earmarked $101 million for this year and next, of which $58 million will go to training and support and $43 million to infrastructure and equipment. The current average annual cost of the program is therefore $50.5 million.
But the $1 billion estimate works out to an average of $100 million per year.
Holland said he was expecting the startup costs to be higher than those in the later years of the program. But the $1 billion figure suggests the annual costs will in fact escalate over the life of the program.
Day said the increase in the average yearly cost of the program can partly be explained by the fact that the number of border guards trained per year will accelerate. He said the number will eventually hit about 600 border guards per year.
As reported by Canwest News Service last month, the CBSA has signed an agreement with the RCMP under which "master trainers" appointed by the Mounties will train a small group of CBSA officers to teach fellow border guards how to use a firearm.
The CBSA has started recruiting officers who will train their colleagues to use firearms. The agency is aiming to deploy the first armed guards in August.
Holland has derided the plans as "training lite," arguing that border guards should not be training other guards to use guns.
Day defended the approach, saying the RCMP will ensure a higher quality of training than if the department contracted out the work.
''It's definitely the superior way to go,'' he said.
But Holland said the government's scaled-back approach to training begs the question of why the annual costs of the program appear set to increase. "You have to ask, what is included in this billion? What exactly are we getting for that? And alternatively, what could we be getting $1 billion spent in a different way?"
At Holland's urging, the Commons public-safety committee has agreed to hold three days of hearings on alternatives to arming border guards, and the costs and consequences of the current plan.
Update to http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/121055.html
A billion dollars for a gun registry that
didn't/
won't/
can't work,
a billion dollars to give pistols to border guards that will
never be used/
used on each other, by accident or design/
only be waved in the faces of uppity tourists,
sigh....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 08:07 pm (UTC)