Ottawa seeks new supplier to notify gun licence holders their renewal fee is due

OTTAWA – The Harper government is seeking a new supplier to send out hundreds of thousands of gun licence renewal applications and reminders to firearms owners.

The Conservatives announced in mid-April that Ottawa will be collecting about $18 million annually in new revenue from gun owners as it phases out a long-standing waiver on licence renewal fees.

Now the Canada Firearms Program, through Public Works, is seeking competitive bids for a massive printing and direct mail-out contract designed to reach 300,000 individual firearms licence holders a year.

No contract value was attached to the request for bids but the statement of work notes that government-paid postage alone will cost $600,000 annually.

The Conservatives legislated the long-gun registry out of existence last year in all parts of the country except Quebec, but firearms licensing was not eliminated with the registry.

Despite repeated claims that the long-gun registry had cost Canadians well over $1 billion, the government’s own figures suggest that eliminating the registry will save only about $2 million a year, while charging licence fees after a seven-year waiver will bring in $18 million in new revenue.