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Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say the service will not be participating in a federal government buyback program for banned assault-style firearms.
The decision was made after consultation with the provincial government, according to a spokesperson.
“The OPP does not have the capacity to collect all ‘assault-style’ firearms in the province,” OPP spokesperson Gosia Puzio said in an email on Friday.
If someone tries to surrender a prohibited gun at an OPP detachment it will be accepted but no compensation will be provided, Puzio added.
The OPP joins several Ontario police forces — and some provinces — in saying it will not participate in the federal program.
Some of the police services that have opted out, including in southwestern Ontario, have raised questions about how the program would work and impact their resources.
The federal government’s Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program aims to get gun owners to surrender more than 2,500 makes and models that have been made illegal since 2020.
The government argues the firearms, which include the AR-15, are intended for warfare rather than hunting or sport. Assault-style weapons are different from assault rifles, which are fully automatic weapons used by militaries — and already illegal to possess.
Anyone who wants to participate in the buyback program must complete a declaration process by March 31.
The funding pool for the program is $248.6 million and applications are processed on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning payouts aren’t guaranteed.
Regardless, anyone who owns a weapon on the list has to dispose of or “permanently deactivate” it before the amnesty period ends on Oct. 30, 2026.
