Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino faced questions about his plan to utilize provincial police resources for the federal government’s firearms buyback program, from Conservative MPs on the House of Commons Public Safety Committee on Oct. 4.
Alberta and Saskatchewan said they told their provincial RCMP not to help in the program. Manitoba said it told Ottawa it does not want its limited provincial policing resources used for the program over investigating violent crimes.
Conservative MP Tako van Popta said during the committee meeting that the minister must work with the provinces for the program to be successful and wondered if Mendicino has a “plan B” in place for provinces that won’t participate.
The minister said he’s still focused on “plan A,” adding that Ottawa collaborates with its provincial and territorial partners, including Alberta.
“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,” he said.
“My door will always be open to working with them in a wide variety of priorities to achieve that goal.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in May 2020 that his government is banning more than 1,500 models of firearms, including AR-15s. The Liberals said they plan on spending up to $250 million buying back the guns.
The Oct. 4 committee was meeting to discuss Bill 21, which includes the gun buyback program, as well as other firearm control measures.
Owners of these guns would have a two-year amnesty period to come into compliance with the prohibition, Trudeau said at the time. That amnesty period has been extended until the end of October as the government seeks for a means to collect all of the weapons. There are about 30,000 in Alberta alone.
Mendicino has said the United Conservative Party government in Alberta is acting in a “reckless” way by telling the Alberta RCMP to ignore orders to participate in the federal gun buyback program.
Violent Crimes
Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said at the committee that she’s heard from police sources that they’re “stretched quite thin and require more resources.”She pointed to data that violent crime has increased over the past seven years by 32 percent, while the Violent Crime Severity Index is also up 18 points, and that there were more than 124,000 additional violent crimes last year than in 2015—when the Conservatives were in government.
“You’re investing considerably less money in border enforcement and considerably less money in community protection, although you’ve acknowledged that that is the primary source of gun violence in our country,” she said.
Conservative MP Doug Shipley asked whether data the Liberals used to move forward with the ban was “political” and based on polling from across Canada.
Mendicino said there’s “nothing political about the approach that we’ve taken in this bill.” He added that ensuring provincial police services have the necessary resources to enforce laws is not “mutually exclusive” to buying back the now-prohibited rifles.
“And the reason is simple; those guns were designed with one purpose in mind and that is to kill,” he said.
