Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Failed pilot project shows gun confiscation must be scrapped (Troy Media)


The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to scrap its gun ban and confiscation program after confiscating only 25 firearms during its Cape Breton pilot project.

Ottawa promised results. Taxpayers got proof of failure


Ottawa’s pilot project cost a lot of money, but only picked up a fraction of the guns projected,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Law enforcement experts told the government the gun confiscation won’t work and now the failed pilot project has proven the point.”

The federal government conducted a pilot project to confiscate firearms from licensed gun owners in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, for approximately six weeks starting in September 2025. The federal government agreed to give at least $149,760 to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to carry out the confiscation.

The government aimed to confiscate 200 firearms during the pilot project. It only collected 25.

The police and other experts have publicly stated this scheme won’t make Canadians safer.

“We know that the gun buyback program is going to have, essentially, zero impact on the crime in Toronto,” said Clayton Campbell, the president of the Toronto Police Association.

The union representing RCMP members says Ottawa’s program “diverts extremely important personnel, resources, and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.”

Budget 2025 says the government has committed $742 million to carry out its gun ban and confiscation scheme, but the government has not been transparent on these costs to taxpayers.

The Liberal Party initially said the confiscation would cost $200 million in 2019. The Parliamentary Budget Officer said it will cost up to $756 million to compensate owners for their firearms. Other experts put the final price tag at about $6 billion.

The government has a history of ballooning costs for gun-control programs. The government initially promised the long-gun registry would cost taxpayers only $2 million. The final tab was more than $2 billion before it was scrapped.

“The results of this pilot project show exactly why police officers, academics, licensed gun owners and everyday taxpayers knew that the gun ban was going to be a failure from the start,” Haubrich said. 

“The federal government needs to own up to its failure, listen to the experts and direct resources to stop illegal gun smuggling instead of confiscating guns from licensed gun owners.”
________________________________________

The views, opinions, and positions expressed by our columnists and contributors are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of our publication.
 
© Troy Media
 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nurses Take Job Action After Years of NDP Neglect

Image Credit:  BC Nurses Union BC nurses have reached a breaking point after years of unsafe conditions, rising violence in the workplace and a government that wouldn’t listen. Now they are on the picket line fighting to be heard. Last week, nurses began job action with a 72-hour strike notice, refusing non-essential overtime and stepping back from non-nursing duties. As of Tuesday, they have escalated to picket lines for the first time in decades. This moment was avoidable. It is the result of years of unanswered concerns from the frontline workers who keep our hospitals running. Nurses have been raising the same concerns for years: unsafe staffing levels, rising violence on the job, and a workload no single person should have to carry. None of it is new, and none of it should have taken a strike vote to get the government's attention. "Nurses are exercising their legal right to job action, but it shouldn’t have had to come to this," said Kiel Giddens, MLA for...
Post a Comment
Read more

British Columbians Still Don’t Know Who’s Paying for NDP’s BC Hydro Deal

The NDP is making billion-dollar promises with BC Hydro, but British Columbians still don’t know who will pay the bill. Last week’s memorandum of understanding isn’t what the federal government and the NDP are making it out to be. It’s an admission that the NDP failed to make the long-term investments needed to keep B.C. powered. Now British Columbians have serious questions about the cost and whether BC Hydro ratepayers will end up paying the price. David L. Williams, MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap and Shadow Minister for BC Hydro and Electrical Energy Development , said British Columbians deserve clear answers about the full implications of the Canada–British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement. “British Columbians deserve the full truth,” said Mr. Williams. “This multi-billion-dollar announcement does not answer who pays for cost overruns, who pays for new generation, who carries the risk if industrial customers do not materialize, or whether ratepayers will be forced ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NDP Government Blames Everyone but Themselves

The federal government has announced new measures to support British Columbia's forestry sector, including $65 million in funding for projects across the province. While any support is welcome, it falls far short of the level of assistance other provinces have secured for key industries. Conservative Forests Critic Ward Stamer says the NDP government needs to take responsibility for its mismanagement of B.C.’s forest industry instead of trying to pass on the blame. Despite promising to create more jobs in the forest sector, the NDP government has overseen the loss of thousands of forestry jobs and 21 mill closures which have devastated communities. “If Premier Eby spent more time addressing the regulatory issues impacting the forestry sector than he did complaining about the federal government, we would not be in the position we are now,” said Stamer. “And instead of trying to place the blame for mill closures on Donald Trump, Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar should t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more