New Brunswick Joins Prairies in Opposing Use of Police for Ottawa’s Gun Confiscation Program

New Brunswick has joined forces with Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to oppose the federal government’s gun buyback program. The Yukon Legislature also recently passed a motion against the measures.

In a joint statement on Oct. 14, New Brunswick, together with the Prairie provinces, called on the Liberal government to halt plans using “scarce RCMP and municipal police resources to confiscate more than 100,000 legally acquired firearms from Canadians.”

The joint statement was issued following a discussion on Ottawa’s firearms buyback program at the “Federal, Provincial and Territorial Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety” in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14.

The Prairie provinces said they had already written to their respective RCMP divisions, indicating that no provincial funding should be used to confiscate legal firearms.

“Instead, funding should be used to fight the criminal misuse of firearms by tackling border integrity, smuggling, and trafficking,” the statement said.

The Epoch Times sought comment from Public Safety Canada, which replied that it had forwarded the request to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office. The office did not reply by publication time.

The federal government’s buyback program comes on the heels of its 2020 legislation banning more than 1,500 models of what it termed as “assault-style” firearms, including AR-15s.

Ottawa has stated that the buyback program “will be mandatory” and will require any Canadian owning guns banned by the new legislation to sell them to the government at prices determined by the feds, or else have them “lawfully disposed.”

‘Expensive and Inefficient’

Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro said the Liberal government contradicted its earlier claim that it will not have law enforcement administer the program due to high costs.

“Two years ago, the federal government said that using police resources would be ‘expensive and inefficient.’ Now the federal government has resorted to using police resources to seize firearms from Canadians,” Shandro said in the joint statement.

He was referring to former federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair who testified before the House of Commons Public Safety Committee in November 2020 that using police resources “would be a very expensive and, in my opinion, a very inefficient way to do it.”

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro answers questions at a news conference in Calgary on Sept. 3, 2021. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press)

“Make no mistake, the federal firearms confiscation program will cost us billions and will not improve public safety,” Shandro said, adding that the Albertan government is “not legally obligated” to provide the resources and “will not do so.”

Alberta was the first province to announce its opposition to the buyback on Sep. 26. Following Shandro’s announcement, incumbent federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino responded in an interview the same day, saying Alberta’s attempt to challenge the constitutionality of the federal firearms prohibition is a “political stunt.”

“It’s a political stunt. [Shandro] knows full well that the regulatory powers, when it relates to firearms, fall squarely within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government,” Mendicino told Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Question Period program.

‘Fair Buyback Program’

In his testimony before the Public Safety Committee on Oct. 4, Mendicino said he will focus on “plan A” when asked by Conservative MP Tako Van Popta if he has a “plan B” in place should provinces refuse to participate in the Liberals’ firearms buyback program.

“Advancing a fair buyback program that will compensate law-abiding gun owners for the assault-style rifles that they originally purchased lawfully is consistent with keeping our community safe, and we will always be collaborative with our provincial and territorial partners,” Mendicino said.

“My door will always be open to working with them in a wide variety of priorities to achieve that goal.”

Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino speaks during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 4, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Saskatchewan adopted Alberta’s position on Sept. 28. In the joint statement on Oct. 14, Christine Tell, the province’s minister of corrections, policing, and public safety, and Bronwyn Eyre, the province’s minister of justice and attorney general, said they are supportive of going after illegal guns, but not guns from law-abiding owners.

“While we fully support crime initiatives that focus on the issues related to the criminal use of illegal firearms, preventing and combating gang violence, and addressing the issue of illegal or smuggled guns in our province, we don’t support those that impact law-abiding hunters, sport shooters, ranchers, farmers, and Indigenous people who use firearms for lawful and good reasons,” they said.

On Oct. 13, the Yukon Legislative Assembly adopted a similar position with the Prairie provinces by passing a motion that “urges the Yukon government to ensure that territorial policing resources are not diverted to assist in the implementation of the Government of Canada’s gun ‘buy-back’ program.”

‘Little Impact on Criminals’

Manitoba, the third province that joined in pushing back on the feds’ buyback program on Sept. 28, said in the joint statement that the confiscation will have “little impact” on criminals but will “further erode” policing resources in the province.

“Manitoba has consistently stated that many aspects of the federal approach to gun crimes unnecessarily target lawful gun owners while having little impact on criminals, who are unlikely to follow gun regulations in any event,” said Kelvin Goertzen, the province’s minister of justice and attorney general.

“In Manitoba’s view, any buy-back program cannot further erode our scarce provincial police resources already suffering from large vacancy rates, and away from focusing on investigation of violent crimes.”

New Brunswick’s Public Safety Minister Kris Austin wants the RCMP to focus on policing instead of using their “limited resources” to participate in the buyback program.

“New Brunswick’s bottom line is this: RCMP resources are spread thin as it is. We have made it clear to the Government of Canada that we cannot condone any use of those limited resources, at all, in their planned buyback program,” Austin said in the joint statement.

Peter Wilson and Rachel Emmanuel contributed to this report.