In a surprise admission Wednesday, Solicitor General Wayne Easter revealed that names of gun owners listed on the federal firearms registry may have been lost in a recent database crash.

"The system went down because it was overloaded," Easter told reporters outside a Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa. "There are some problems with some of the people whose names may have disappeared as a result."

The system was flooded with applications just before Jan. 1, the original deadline for registration. The system could not handle the intake on Dec. 28, 29 and 30 and 31, Easter said.

Easter would not say how many names might have been lost in the computer system crash. He said government officials are fielding calls from people who say they registered in late December, but have yet to receive confirmation.

Easter said the system is functioning properly now, but the unprompted revelation was another blow to the troubled gun-control project.

Earlier, Ontario became the latest province to announce it won't prosecute people who don't register their rifles or shotguns.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Ontario Attorney General Norm Sterling told reporters the federal gun registration law was "badly flawed" and "misdirected."

"They (Ottawa) should take the responsibility for a badly flawed piece of legislation, which really persecutes the wrong people, innocent people, good people who want to use long firearms for hunting and recreational use," Sterling said.

Sterling's comments came shortly after Nova Scotia Justice Minister Jamie Muir said he would direct provincial prosecutors to refer any offenders to federal prosecutors.

"It's their law, let them enforce it," Muir told reporters Tuesday.

"We believe the public is served best when our prosecution service focuses on serious criminal matters," he explained. "People who use weapons dangerously, or to commit a crime, will still face the full extent of the law.

"But it makes no sense to clog up the courts with procedural matters around long-gun registrations."

Solicitor General Wayne Easter later shrugged off Muir's comments, saying: "Governments have a responsibility to uphold the laws of the land and it's up to the province to prosecute under those laws."

The federal Firearms Act and the Criminal Code state that anyone possessing a firearm as defined in Section 2 of the Code must hold a valid firearms registration certificate. The new legislation requires that owners of long-guns such as rifles and shotguns, register their weapons by July 1 or face legal action.

Critics of the gun registry have argued that the legislation is nothing more than a costly waste of time.

The auditor general has projected it could end up costing more than $1 billion by 2005 rather than the net $2 million over 10 years projected when it was established in 1995. And many say people who would use their firearms for violent offences aren't likely to register their guns anyway.

Muir said the registry "has been flawed from the start" and says its not in the public interest to enforce registration in cases where law-abiding people have guns intended to be used for hunting or range process.

Exceptions could be made if offenders have a history of firearm-related offences, or if they blatantly disregard police warnings.

In all, eight provinces have called for the suspension of the registry. Manitoba and Saskatchewan say they won't cooperate with federal prosecutors while Alberta is advising police to use discretion and only lay charges under the Firearms Act, which it will not prosecute.

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer says not prosecuting offenders won't encourage people to break the law, but "we're not just going to administer a bad law."

"This is a waste of money," he told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday. "We would rather have that money with police officers; we'd rather have that money with border security; we'd rather have that money for kids to go into gyms and schools after hours and on weekends to stay out of negative activity."

Doer said the federal government should sit down with provincial justice ministers to draft a new gun control plan.

With a report from The Canadian Press