Ottawa is putting new regulations before Parliament that would enable businesses that own firearms to ship them by mail as part of its federal firearms buyback program.
The proposed measures would allow professional couriers to transport prohibited firearms to disposal facilities.
“Once the program launches, these measures will provide businesses with additional options to participate in the program and dispose of the affected assault-style firearms and devices they hold in their inventory,” Minister of Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a May 23 press release.
“These proposed regulations will make the affected firearms and devices mailable matter and will temporarily permit businesses taking part in the program to ship firearms or devices via post.”
Phase one of the firearm buyback program will focus on businesses and industries, with the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association representing firearms retailers and manufacturers to help determine how each will participate in the program. That organization will also help document inventory and hand out information on how to participate in the program.
Ottawa has also amended the Amnesty Order and tabled proposed shipping regulations in Parliament to establish additional routes for businesses to transport the banned firearms and devices to deactivate or destroy them.
The second phase of the buyback program, which will impact individual firearm owners, will begin after phase one has ended. Details on the compensation models will be provided at a later time, because the program’s design, including the development of an IT processing system, is still in progress.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during the 2019 and 2021 elections that the federal government would conduct a buyback of semi-automatic firearms. The Liberals announced a ban on the use, sale, and import of more than 1,500 makes and models of “assault-style weapons” following a mass shooting with illegally acquired firearms in Nova Soctia in April 2020 that left 22 people dead.
The federal government announced Bill C-21 in February 2021, which imposed a national freeze on the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns in Canada.
The Amnesty Order for firearms, which ensures gun owners and businesses are protected from criminal liability for unlawful possession while the regulations come into force, is set to expire on Oct. 30, 2025.
Obstacles to Buyback Program
The government has encountered several obstacles to its firearms buyback program, set to take place next year. Canada Post recently said in a letter to Ottawa that it had concerns about collecting the firearms for the program, saying it feared employees could end up in conflicts with gun owners hesitant to give up their firearms.Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights vice-president Tracey Wilson told The Epoch Times that the Crown corporation’s fears were valid, because its involvement in the buyback program would “put their staff in direct danger of being a target for organized crime.”
While the program’s cost was initially estimated at between $400 million and $600 million, internal government documents later revealed estimates that it would cost nearly $2 billion. Ottawa had planned to begin its buyback on Prince Edward Island as a pilot project in December 2022 before the full rollout of the program began in spring 2023, but ended up pausing the plan.
Several provinces and the federal opposition have also come out against various aspects of the firearms buyback program. The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick have urged Ottawa to “halt plans to use scarce RCMP and municipal police resources” to take away the firearms.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called the buyback program an attempt to take firearms away from “law-abiding” hunters and sports shooters while failing to address illegal firearms smuggled across the Canada-U.S. border through criminal networks.
