The Liberal government has spent millions on its federal gun buyback scheme despite not yet buying a single firearm from law-abiding gun owners.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), there are looming signs that the cost of the program will continue to balloon without producing any results.
“This is more evidence that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gun ban and buyback is going to be another taxpayer boondoggle,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano.
“The feds are spending millions of dollars before reimbursing a single gun owner, so it’s a good bet that this bill will keep ballooning.”
The $3.7 million bill for the program currently only includes $2.1 million for salaries of 10 officials at the Firearms Buyback Secretariat and another $1.6 million to operate the office.
According to the CTF, the Secretariat refused to provide a further breakdown of costs associated with the program.
Estimates by the Parliamentary Budget Officer place the cost of the final buyback scheme at $756 million but the true cost will likely be much higher as this figure doesn’t take into account bureaucratic costs like paying staff.
“Trudeau needs to cut his losses and put an end to this ineffective and expensive policy,” explained Terrazzano.
“The people protecting us say the gun ban and buyback won’t make Canadians safer, and taxpayers don’t need another government program that wastes our money.”
The program has led to friction between federal and provincial governments as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have indicated that they will not comply with the government’s plans to confiscate firearms from law-abiding gun owners.
Alberta was the latest to say that they will be intervening in a challenge to Trudeau’s buyback program saying that it will prevent Alberta RCMP officers from doing Ottawa’s bidding.
“As intervenors, we would be able to offer the Court arguments based on the specific challenges that the federal legislation has created for Alberta’s law abiding firearms community and advanced legal arguments that the federal government has overreached with its plan to ban 1500 models of firearms,” said Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro.
