The federal government is set to make big changes to Canada's controversial gun registry, CTV News has learned.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day is expected to announce changes Tuesday to the registry that would include an amnesty for rifle and shotgun owners.

That would mean that only handguns and semi-automatic weapons will be placed on the list.

The announcement is expected to follow a report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser on the beleaguered gun registry.

"The auditor general will be reflecting on elements to do with the gun registry and I'll be making some comments following that," Day said.

The Conservatives are also expected to announce they will give the RCMP the responsibility to register and keep track of guns in Canada.

"Whatever the government decides, obviously we will support in any way we can," RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said.

During the recent election campaign, the Conservatives promised to scrap the gun registry. However, it's not clear whether the government could get such legislation through a minority Parliament.

The Liberals and NDP are split on the registry, while the Bloc Quebecois has traditionally supported it.

Critics of the registry include ranchers, farmers, hunters and target shooters.

However, there are many supporters as well, including Chief Armand La Barge, who heads York Regional Police. He recently told The Globe and Mail the firearms databank is consulted by police about 5,000 times a day.

Tony Cannavino of the Canadian Professional Police Association warns that limiting the registry to handguns may not solve the gun crime problem.

"Our last six or seven police officers were killed with long guns,'' he told CTV News. "That's very sad.''

Fraser's report on the gun registry -- her second -- is expected to say the Liberal government tried to hide cost overruns from Parliament.

The Liberals estimated the gun registry would cost about $2 million, once registration fees were taken into account. Instead, costs ballooned to an estimated $1 billion by 2004-05.

Fraser will reportedly say that costs grew because the Firearms Centre signed contracts with two competing computer firms.

Information from her audit was leaked to the media last week; however, Fraser said she doesn't feel the need to call in the police to deal with the situation.

"In our opinion there has been no breach of the law that would require us to report the incident to the RCMP," Fraser told the Commons public accounts committee on Monday. "Rather there has been a breach of the government security policy."

Fraser said there were serious inaccuracies in the story, leading her to believe the information was obtained verbally.

"There are serious inaccuracies. So, if it was a physical copy of the report being available, one would presume it would have been more accurate."

In 2002, a report by Fraser predicted the gun registry would reach a cost of $1 billion over its first decade in operation.

Legislation creating the registry was passed in 1995 as a response to the shooting of 14 young women at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique six years earlier by Marc Lépine. The intention of the registry was to keep track of all legally-owned guns in Canada and to reduce crime by making every gun traceable.

With a report by CTV's Rosemary Thompson