So You Thought the Gun Registry Was Expensive.....

[Icebound]

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How about $7-10B, for something equally useless?


http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/n ... le/1037787



Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, forecasted last week the cost of implementing just one of the Tories' tough-on-crime bills could be between $7 billion and $10 billion during the next five years.

That could cost New Brunswick $250 million a year, Lamrock says.

... ...

Michael Boudreau, associate professor of criminology at St. Thomas University, says the Tory changes are a case of politics over policy.

"Most of this legislation is flawed and it's flawed because it's being driven by politics, not by common sense," he says.

An April poll from EKOS Research suggested Canadians' views on crime are hardening. Although a greater number of people still favour a preventative approach, the number supporting punishment as the main priority of the justice system has gained significant ground during the past decade.

But Boudreau says the popular notion that crime is becoming more prevalent is a myth.

"One could argue that we're just as safe now as we were in the 1950s. There was no golden age of a crime-free society in Canada. It just never existed. The irony is we might actually be living in one now, in terms of the relative absence of crime."

He says increasing sentences doesn't reduce crime rates or the likelihood someone will re-offend once they're released. Both Boudreau and Lamrock point to the U.S. as proof the approach is flawed.

"The American states are very good at underfunding schools and building all sorts of prisons," Lamrock says, adding that he's asked his department to see if the provinces will have any room for alternatives under the new laws.

"If Ottawa tries to force a failed American approach on us then obviously we will comply with the law, but we'll use all the discretion we can under the law to protect what's working for New Brunswickers."