Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says his government is not ready to announce when and for how long its gun amnesty program will be extended, six weeks before the current extension is set to expire.
“More information will be forthcoming as we announce the program,” Anandasangaree said on his way into the Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa Wednesday.
Days after a gunman in Nova Scotia committed the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on over 1,500 models and variants of “assault-style firearms.”
The number of models on the initial list announced May 1, 2020, has since been increased to about 2,500.
The ban came with a two-year amnesty that allowed owners of guns like the AR-15 to be turned in until April 30, 2022. That amnesty period was extended by a year in 2022 and then by another two years in 2023.
Anandasangaree said in August that the last extension, which is is set to expire on Oct. 30, would have to be pushed back.
At the time, the Liberals promised to compensate those who own such firearms through a buyback program, which the Parliamentary Budget Office said in 2021 would cost upwards of $750 million.
The program for individual owners still hasn’t started, but the federal government says that is “expected to happen later in 2025.” The program for businesses is still open.
The federal government says that as of April 30, businesses in Canada have filed 12,195 compensation claims for prohibited firearms.
Public safety and election promises
During the federal election Prime Minister Mark Carney said a Liberal government would reinvigorate the assault-style firearm buyback program if he won office.
The Liberal election promise to crack down on crimes included a number of other policies on top of pumping more money and effort into the amnesty and buyback program, including:
- Automatically revoking gun licences for people convicted of violent crimes, particularly when those crimes include intimate partner violence.
- Passing legislation making the RCMP responsible for classifying new firearm models rather than the gun industry.
- Increasing funding to the RCMP’s forensic laboratories to help law enforcement better track down guns used in crimes.
- Strengthening oversight of firearms licensing and enforcement.
“You can’t be serious about being tough on crime if you’re not willing to be tough on guns,” Carney said in announcing the plan.
“You can’t be serious about stopping intimate partner violence without being serious about gun control.”
Carney said he would pursue these changes while respecting the right of hunters and Indigenous people to use firearms for sport and tradition.
