Trudeau promises more gun control and goes on the attack against Scheer

BREAKING NEWS FROM Calibre Magazine

𝐆𝐮𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟-𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤, 𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐏𝐞𝐫-𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 $𝟐𝟒,𝟒𝟏𝟔


𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒𝑙 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒
𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟱, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

This is an important one, folks.
Daniel Fritter does some deep digging on the financials and administration, and this is information the Liberals do not want to be very public.
There is a lot here.

See it all at the link below:

 
Canada's National Firearms Association

Political Theatre in the House: Calkins Slams Liberal Fear Tactics and Firearms Priorities


On June 2, 2025, during debate in the House of Commons on the Speech from the Throne, MP Blaine Calkins (Ponoka - Didsbury) delivered a searing rebuke of the federal Liberal government’s use of fear-based narratives and broken promises—particularly in regard to firearm policy.

Calkins accused the Liberals of manipulating public sentiment to win elections, only to renege on commitments once in office. He pointed to a troubling imbalance in budget estimates: for every dollar allocated toward combatting gangs and violent crime, the government plans to spend four targeting law-abiding firearms owners.

“The way the Liberals operate in Canada, they say whatever they need to say—create whatever state of fear they need to create—in order to get elected. Then they come to Ottawa and basically renege on all of the promises that they made.”

Calkins, who represents a large rural constituency in Alberta, emphasized that his community is home to hunters, farmers, ranchers—people who legally and responsibly own firearms. He expressed frustration that despite rhetoric about respecting these Canadians, the government’s actions consistently target the lawful while sidestepping the criminal element that drives actual violence.

“We heard His Majesty the King, in the Speech from the Throne, talk about respecting law-abiding firearms owners. Yet we take a look at the estimates tabled by this government—they're going to spend four dollars going after law-abiding gun owners for every one dollar they’re going to spend going after gangs and criminals.”

The numbers Calkins referenced come from federal spending estimates that break down public safety expenditures. These documents have revealed a consistent pattern: disproportionate resource allocation toward programs like gun buybacks, regulation enforcement, and administrative measures affecting licensed owners—while funding for initiatives targeting organized crime and illegal smuggling remains relatively limited.

His remarks echo a growing concern across rural and suburban Canada: that firearm policy has become more about political optics than public safety.
“Liberals seem to say one thing, and do the exact opposite.”

Calkins’ comments hopefully spark renewed debate over the government’s approach. For many Canadians, especially those outside urban centres, his words resonated with frustration they’ve long felt—frustration that their way of life is being undermined in the name of Liberal political theatre.

 

Canada Gun Licences Rise to New Record in 2024​

Highlights

Total PAL holders rose 2.5% to 2,412,122 in December 2024 from 2,352,504 in December 2023.

PALs advanced in every province and territory, led by Ontario (+3.3%, +22,356 people) and Alberta (+3.3%, +12,006 people).

142,332 adults obtained a PAL for the first time.

Net increase of 59,618 PALs in 2024 exceeded 10-year annual average gain of about 40,000.

“Restricted” PAL (RPAL) +3.1% to 775,266 vs. 752,002.

Data Source: RCMP Commissioner of Firearms Report for 2024

 

Cost of federal gun grab hits $342.6 million amid data concerns​

The federal government’s controversial gun grab of “assault-style” firearms is now expected to cost $342.6 million, according to testimony from public safety officials who acknowledged the estimate relies on outdated police data from over a decade ago.

Speaking before the Senate national finance committee, senior officials from the Department of Public Safety confirmed that the first phase of the program, involving the collection of prohibited firearms from businesses, ended April 30 with about $20 million budgeted to retrieve 12,000 weapons.

Blacklock's Reporter said so far, $4.8 million has been invoiced for that phase, excluding additional costs such as destruction services and staff.

The second phase, targeting gun owners directly, is expected to be far more expensive.

The department plans to spend another $75.5 million in support to provinces and territories, while $260 million has been earmarked to compensate individual owners.

Despite the hefty price tag, officials admitted they are uncertain how many firearms are actually in circulation.

“We are estimating there is a total of approximately 180,000 assault-style firearms to collect,” said Marcia Jones, director general with the department.

“Those estimates are based on data provided by the RCMP for previously registered firearms. We were able to do estimates based on what was known in 2012.”

That admission raised eyebrows among senators, especially since Parliament ordered the destruction of long-gun registry records in 2012 through Bill C-19.

Sen. Claude Carignan questioned how the department could rely on data that was supposed to be erased.

“So this is leftover data that was used here?” Carignan asked. “That’s right,” replied Jones.

Jones explained that while Québec maintained its own registry, the rest of the country now has what she described as “a bit of a data gap,” especially when it comes to unregistered firearms.

A 2020 cabinet forecast projected the buyback would cost between $300 million and $400 million. The Parliamentary Budget Office later warned the total could reach $756 million due to significant unknowns about the number of affected firearms.

“There remain too many outstanding questions,” the PBO wrote in its 2021 report on the buyback program’s cost estimate.


They are SERIOUSLY underestimating the related costs.
 

Alberta Exploring Its Own Firearm Licence, ‘As Obstructionist as Possible’ on Liberal Gun Confiscations​

TheGunBlog.ca — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she is exploring with Saskatchewan how to create their own provincial firearm licences, their newest effort to undermine and exit the Liberal Party of Canada’s anti-gun regime.
‘As Obstructionist As Possible’

Smith also said Alberta is using its 2023 Firearms Act to be “as obstructionist as possible” toward the Liberal mass criminalizations and confiscations targeting government-licensed gun owners.

Saskatchewan is using a similar approach with a similar law.

Video Source

The premier made her comments in a video shared on the X platform last night by Tracey Wilson, the Vice President Public Relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.


Why It Matters

Exiting the federal firearm-licensing system would be a fatal blow to the Liberal anti-gun regime.

Simply exploring the idea is a sign of hope for millions of individuals and families who own and use firearms for everything from personal protection and hunting to recreation and competition to collecting.

Alberta is reframing gun ownership away from the Liberal narrative of crime and violence, and toward civil rights and property.

Liberal politicians are fueling hostility towards themselves and their anti-firearm system with their campaign of attacks targeting government-licensed firearm users.

Smith Comments (Excerpts)


One of the things that we did is we passed a law telling our municipal governments that they are not allowed to participate in the gun-confiscation program without getting permission from our justice minister.

That’s Number 1.

Number 2, we also told the RCMP that it is not our policing priority. We want them going after “bad guys” and shutting down fentanyl labs, we do not want them going after law-abiding gun owners.



The fourth thing is that we’ve got our own Chief Firearms Officer, Teri Bryant. That has brought home all of our ability for us to process the firearms licences.

Our next step is, we’ve created this Firearms Act that allows us to determine the credentials and the training somebody needs to participate in the federal government’s firearms-confiscation program. And it might take us a while to figure out what all of those requirements are. It might take years, in fact, for somebody to be able to get the proper certification to participate in that program. Maybe even decades.

So we’re going to be as obstructionist as possible on that.

The last thing that I’m exploring — and I’ve asked Scott Moe, we had a joint caucus meeting with Saskatchewan, because they feel very much the same way: Is there a way for us to create our own Alberta firearms licence that would allow for us to say … [applause]: Any guns purchased legally as of, I don’t know, January 1, 2000, you can own, keep, and use in the province of Alberta. That’s what we’re going to try to do.

Because here’s the thing: The federal government can regulate certain types of property. They can regulate the criminal use. And we’ve seen this. There’s vehicular homicide. There’s drunk driving. If you’re using your vehicle in a way that is committing a crime, that falls into federal jurisdiction. But they don’t control our registry for how we do automobile registrations. That is provincial jurisdiction. That’s a property issue.

So it’s very much the same thing. Fine, federal government: control the criminal use of firearms.

But the legal use of firearms, the legal ownership of firearms, we believe that’s property and civil rights, Section [92] (13) of the Constitution, our purview, and we are going to fight it to the Nth degree, because we just do not believe that this is a proper policing priority.

Context

Politicians designed Canada’s anti-gun regime to arbitrarily and easily criminalize honest gun users and confiscate their legally owned firearms.

They invented laws and regulations based on three main tactics to control and suppress gun owners:

Controlling who is allowed to buy, sell, own, and use firearms, which firearms, and for what purpose. (“Licensing”)

Controlling who is allowed to buy and sell firearms legally from whom. (“Registering”)

Controlling which firearms people are allowed to buy, sell and own, and for what purpose. (“Classifying”)

The prohibitionist framework that has begun to unravel was developed mostly by politicians from the Liberal Party through a series of laws and arbitrary decrees since the 1960s, especially the federal Firearms Act of 1995.

Alberta challenged parts of the anti-gun law with the support of several provinces and associations, and lost its appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada in June 2000.

 

On Gun Control and Firearms Buyback Scheme, Feds Should Follow the Data​

Prime Minister Mark Carney has a diverse mandate to pursue as he had campaigned on taking a markedly different direction in governance from his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Carney’s promises to undo many of the Liberal initiatives, from the consumer carbon tax to the mass immigration levels, resonated with Canadians and helped him turn the party’s fortunes from what appeared to be a certain electoral blowout to nearly winning a majority government. The promises have also left the Liberals with some serious budgetary challenges.

Though Carney never promised to do so, he should consider quietly dropping the firearm ban and buyback program. It is ill-conceived and has the potential to turn into a costly boondoggle with little impact on crime or public safety.

The Carney government has an opportunity to take a pragmatic approach to battling violent crimes while saving funds and government resources in general. By dropping the firearm bans and gun buyback scheme, the feds could free up policing and court resources to deal with more pressing crimes. Investments in border control, policing, and mental health resources will have a measurable impact on violent crime prevention. It would take a shift from ideology-based policy to results-based policy on crime, but it would be worth it for both the government and citizens.

 

Feds admit gun grab unpopular with firearms owners​

A federal report suggests a government gun grab on “assault style” firearms to be enforced from October 30 by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s department will be a costly failure.

Few gun owners trust the government, it said, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The program’s success is dependent on firearm owners’ awareness and understanding of the program and how it works along with positive perceptions about the program and why it makes sense from the perspective of public safety,” said the report.

“The Government of Canada believes it is unlikely to be the most trusted messenger with individuals who own assault-style firearms. As such the program faces a risk of non-compliance.”

The conclusion is drawn in a Privy Council Office report, Understanding Firearms Owners. The Privy Council paid $99,977 to Ekos Research Associates, an Ottawa pollster, to distribute questionnaires to 1,712 gun owners nationwide.

Only 15% of owners surveyed said they were subject to the gun grab. However a majority of all owners, 57%, opposed the program.

Asked, “How likely if at all do you think affected firearm owners are to participate in the buy-back program?” 67% replied “not likely.” The rate was as high as 71% in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Department of Public Safety has budgeted $342.6 million to collect some 180,000 “assault-style” firearms with compensation paid to lawful owners. The Budget Office has estimated costs would double to $756 million.

“There remain too many outstanding questions,” said a 2021 analysts’ report on the cost estimate of the Firearm Buy-Back Program.

Understanding Firearms Owners said the typical owner had one or two firearms, owned guns for 10 years or more and went shooting less than once a month. A quarter, 24%, said they used their firearm “once a year or less.” The most frequent activities were hunting. Nearly half, 45%, said they kept firearms for “sentimental reasons.”

Asked, “How did you obtain your firearms?” 42% said they inherited them from a family member. A majority, 83%, said they kept their federal permits up to date. A majority added they followed all regulations on safe storage.

Asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Owning a firearm is a privilege not a right,” 33% disagreed. Asked if they agreed that “owning a firearm creates a safety risk for myself or others,” 76% disagreed.

Nearly half, 48t, agreed that “being a firearm owner is an important part of my identity.” The rate was 56% in Alberta, 54% in Saskatchewan, 53% in Atlantic Canada, 51% in Manitoba and 50% in Ontario.

A majority, 84%, agreed that “firearms violence is almost always caused by criminals or those in illegal possession of a firearm.” A total 78% agreed that “legal firearm owners are unfairly targeted by firearms regulations and policies.”

Sixty-three percent said they distrusted the federal government “to maintain public safety.” Asked what factors would “motivate you to dispose of these firearms,” only 25% mentioned “wanting to comply with the law.”

 

FIRST READING: Internal report shows Ottawa doubtful that wildly overbudget gun 'buy back' will ever work​

he Liberal government’s plan to “buy back” thousands of once-legal Canadian firearms is not only severely behind schedule and over-budget, but a newly released internal report shows that Ottawa is doubtful of the plan ever actually working as announced.

In May 2020, former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government issued an order-in-council banning more than 1,500 different types of Canadian firearms given the new designation of “assault-style.”

In an instant, an estimated 150,000 guns that used to be legal for hunting or target shooting were now classified as prohibited, meaning the owners faced criminal charges if they so much as removed them from storage.

At the time, the government estimated that it would cost $200 million to purchase all the newly prohibited firearms as part of a “buy-back” scheme that would come to be called the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program.

Five years later, the Liberals have sunk more than double that amount into the program, with a mere 12,195 firearms having been turned over to the government to date.

The program is so behind schedule that private owners of prohibited firearms can’t even turn over their banned guns if they wanted to, as the buy-back currently only applies to businesses. “The program is not yet available for individuals,” reads a warning on the official webpage of the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program.

And even when gun owners do become eligible for the buyback, the government’s own internal reports are warning that they may not bother.

A recently published internal report for the Privy Council Office warned that the Government of Canada “is unlikely to be the most trusted messenger” when it comes to Canadian gun-owners.

It added, “the program faces a risk of non-compliance.”

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The report, entitled Understanding Firearms Owners , is a $100,000 survey commissioned from the polling firm EKOS Research Associates in order to “support the development of Government communications” encouraging gun-owners to participate in the buy-back program. Delivered to the government in January, it was just made available online.

The buy-back program is voluntary, as anybody in possession of one of the banned firearms could simply opt to keep it in storage indefinitely. As such, the report notes that the whole program hinges on convincing gun owners to have “positive perceptions about the program and why it makes sense from the perspective of public safety.”

As far back as 2021, the Parliamentary Budget Officer calculated that $200 million was a wild underestimate for the scale of the buy-back program being suggested. A report estimated that it would end up costing $756 million just for compensation fees , in addition to the bureaucratic expenses of administering the program.

A fiscal analysis released earlier this month by the publication Calibre Magazine found that federal funds earmarked for the buy-back program would blow past the $500 million mark this year. Given the small quantity of prohibited firearms that have actually been captured by the program, Calibre Magazine calculated that the cost thus far works out to about $24,000 per gun.

According to a departmental plan released last week by Public Safety Canada , the government is planning to spend $459.8 million on the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program over the next fiscal year.

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For the current fiscal year, this makes the gun buyback program one of the Liberal government’s largest single expenditures on public safety.

For comparison, a package of new spending to combat fentanyl trafficking announced earlier this year came to $200 million. In December, when the Trudeau government caved to U.S. demands to strengthen border security, the result was $355.4 million in new spending for the Canada Border Services Agency.

The ballooning expense of the buyback program is occurring in tandem with growing evidence that a recent rise in Canadian gun crime is due almost entirely to illegal guns smuggled in from the United States.

The Toronto Police Service now estimates that 90 per cent of the crime guns it is encountering are U.S. firearms that never had any connection to the Canadian legal firearm market.

Illegal U.S. guns were also the primary weapons used in the mass-shooting that directly preceded the May 2020 “assault style” ban. Although the ban was issued as a direct response to an April 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting that saw 22 people murdered, a probe would determine that the firearms employed were all illegal at the time of the massacre, and three had been smuggled in from the United States.

 

Liberal gun grab expected to cost taxpayers more than $500M in upcoming fiscal year​

The Liberals’ controversial, long-delayed gun grab program is expected to cost taxpayers more than $500 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

A recent report found the government’s Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program is widely unpopular with Canadians. The gun grab is entering its fifth year behind schedule — and is over budget and increasingly unpopular.

Originally propagated as a public safety measure to remove “assault-style” firearms from circulation, the program has devolved into a multi-million-dollar boondoggle that critics say is achieving next to nothing — except burning taxpayer dollars.

In May 2020, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau used an order-in-council to ban more than 1,500 models of Canadian firearms, immediately rendering some 150,000 guns illegal for use.

The federal government promised a buyback program to compensate owners, originally pegged at $200 million. But the Parliamentary Budget Officer warned early on that Ottawa had severely underestimated the costs. In 2021, the PBO revised the estimate to $756 million. Now, five years on, a fiscal analysis by Calibre Magazine shows the program is expected to cost more than $500 million this year alone.

According to Public Safety Canada’s 2025–26 Main Estimates, the federal government plans to spend $459.8 million on compensation and operations.

Additional costs for RCMP logistics, secure transport, IT infrastructure, and program staffing bring the actual number closer to the half-billion-dollar mark. The program has become one of Ottawa’s largest safety expenditures, outpacing even its 2024 border security initiative and recent fentanyl counter-trafficking funding.

As of June 2025, only 12,195 firearms have been collected — exclusively from businesses. Private owners, who account for the vast majority of banned guns, are still unable to participate.

According to the government’s own website, “the program is not yet available for individuals.”

Phase 2 remains unfunded and delayed, and even if it does launch, a report commissioned by the Privy Council Office suggests widespread non-compliance is likely. A federal survey concluded Ottawa is “unlikely to be the most trusted messenger” for lawful gun owners, as the Western Standard earlier reported.

The political rationale is also under scrutiny. Gun crime in Canada is increasingly driven by illegal imports, not lawful gun owners.

The Toronto Police Service now estimates that 90% of crime guns are smuggled from the US and never belonged to the Canadian legal market. Public Safety Canada has yet to explain how confiscating registered firearms from law-abiding citizens is supposed to reduce gang shootings in Toronto or Winnipeg.

 
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