There’s mounting opposition to the federal government’s firearm buy-back program.
The program opened Jan 19, despite widespread opposition and refusal of some provinces to participate.
The federal government unveiled the next steps in its national gun buyback program and Canadians will have about two months to declare their interest in participating in order to receive compensation for turning in outlawed firearms. The program runs until March 31.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said that “the compensation program is voluntary, but compliance with the law is not.”
Groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have been lobbying the feds to reconsider the program.
“Remember, the federal government has an amnesty in place for all the banned guns until Oct. 30, 2026. That means you shouldn’t have to hand in your banned firearms until that date. So don’t let the government push you into anything,” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
At least three provinces have come out saying they will not participate.
Both Alberta and Manitoba officials have said they won’t administer the program.
Saskatchewan introduced changes to its firearms legislation last November, proposing that anyone who seizes a firearm under the federal government’s laws must pay the owner fair market value as determined by the Saskatchewan Firearms Commissioner.
After a dismal response in Cape Breton to the federal gun buy-pack program, citizens and local MPs are once again calling out the Carney government in wasting tax dollars.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation constantly polls residents, asking them to provide their thoughts on Ottawa’s gun confiscation.
The government just released the results of its gun ban pilot project in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. After banning more than 2,500 hundred different makes and models of firearms since 2020, the federal government ran a six-week pilot project in Cape Breton to collect firearms from individual owners.
The government aimed to confiscate 200 firearms during the pilot project. It only collected 25.
The federal government agreed to give at least $149,760 to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to carry out the confiscation.
Experts put the total cost of the national confiscation to taxpayers at more than $6 billion, the federation says.
“But law enforcement experts have stated the program won’t make Canadians safer.”
The union representing RCMP members says Ottawa’s program “diverts extremely important personnel, resources, and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.”
“As predicted, the Liberal firearms confiscation effort on Cape Breton has failed to achieve any real headway towards its illegitimate goal.
“The confiscation of lawfully owned, legally acquired property.
“Only 25 firearms were handed in, half of which from one individual and most not even affected by the Liberal Orders in Council.
“Cape Bretoners are among the most level headed, agreeable and cooperative people in Canada. If the Liberals could not sell their offensive confiscatory agenda to them, there is even less hope for any kind of real compliance in the rest of Canada,” said Blair Hagen, Executive Vice President, Canada’s National Firearms Association.
Dufferin-Caledon MP Kyle Seeback said the feds are not learning any lessons from these results. This buy-back is systematic of a government that’s ineffective against “crime and chaos.”
Seeback points to extortion as the number-one growing crime, not only in urban centres but here in rural areas.
He said Caledon OPP are investigating 50 cases of extortion and there was an extortion-related shooting in Orangeville.
“This is where the safety minister should be focused on,” he said. The money spent on the gun buy-back could be directed to fighting things like extortion-related crimes or boosting front-line officers.
The feds, he said, are pretending there’s a problem with legal firearms, even when figures indicated that the majority of gun crimes in the GTA are from illegal weapons acquired from the U.S.
The Liberals won’t likely change their stance on gun control and Seeback said the Conservatives have introduced several bills to curb crime, and some have failed to gain support in the House.
“The Carney Liberals need to abandon this program and realize what a damaging mistake this was on every level,” said Tracey Wilson, VP, Public Relations, Registered Lobbyist, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.
“It’s unsurprising that bureaucracies and services in Quebec are in favour of helping the federal government confiscate firearms from licenced individuals as this has been the epicentre of radical and unreasonable gun control in Canada for decades.
“As it applies to the rest of the country, more and more Canadians have come to the conclusion that this is exclusively a political exercise. The evidence supporting this view couldn’t be more clear. First, the Minister of Public Safety, nor the Minister of Justice, nor the Prime Minister have met with stakeholders on this massive program. Next, the Public Safety Minister’s office today circulated statements containing distracting dialogue about portal design and insufficient instructions while the real reason participation has been dismal is still yet to be acknowledged by them.
“That reason is that the federal government has circulated the idea that only so many licenced gun owners are going to be compensated for their firearms. This is entirely contrary to their promise for approaching the last six years.
“With an estimated 2 million firearms in circulation that are now prohibited, the government plans to pay for 152,000 of them. Gun owners won’t know whether they’ll be compensated until they reveal to the government what they have. This puts gun owners into an untenable position that is as outrageous as it is immoral.
“The proof that this is a cynical political undertaking by the Liberal government is this: if the government truly felt that these firearms were too dangerous to be held by licenced gun owners, they would simply guarantee that they would pay for them, full stop. They would just keep their promise.”
In Ontario there was 690,082 licensed firearms owners in 2024. Of those 462,515 had registered guns. That number continues to rise annually.
