Trudeau gun program announced but no way to deliver it

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The recent political spat between the federal government and Alberta shows just how ill-conceived the gun ban and “buyback” program really is. The Trudeau Liberals are now asking provinces and cities to offer police resources to take guns from licensed gun owners, and they’re getting some backlash.

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In case you haven’t heard, there is a lot of concern being expressed about Alberta, and now Saskatchewan, opposing federal laws. That’s the argument put forward by Trudeau’s Minister of Public Safety, Marco Mendicino.

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“It’s a waiver of responsibility. It’s a step down because it suggests every province has the ability to opt out of a federal law when it comes to firearms,” ​​Mendicino said Wednesday.

He was responding to Alberta Attorney General Tyler Shandro, who announced Monday that his province would not allocate provincial resources to the gun “buyback” or confiscation program.

“It’s important to remember that Alberta taxpayers pay over $750 million a year for the RCMP and we will not tolerate taking officers off the streets to seize the property of law-abiding gun owners,” he said Shandro.

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He made it clear that he doesn’t see taking firearms from legal, licensed gun owners as a priority when the province has other policing and crime issues to deal with. While Mendicino portrays this as Alberta trying to “get out of a federal law,” Alberta is actually following the contract they have with the federal government for the Mounties.

Section 6.1 of the Provincial Police Service Agreement states: “The Provincial Minister shall determine the objectives, priorities and objectives of the provincial police service.” Meanwhile, Section 6.4 of the Agreement states: “Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as restricts in any way Alberta’s jurisdiction over the administration of justice and provincial law enforcement.”

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Trudeau tries to offload the responsibility

What the federal government is trying to do is get provincial and local police services to do their jobs for them, and Alberta, now joined by Saskatchewan, says no. It would be like the federal government telling the Surete du Quebec or the Ontario provincial police their priorities and then getting upset when Ontario or Quebec disagreed.

The real problem here is not that provincial governments are pushing back on bad policies, but that the Trudeau government has announced its policies without having a real chance to implement them.

At the national level, the RCMP does not have the resources to run this arms collection program, which they plan to launch by the end of the year. The Mounties have told the government they don’t have the resources.

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Canada Post has also been considered as a potential firearms collection partner, and they too have told the Trudeau government that they are unable to handle the volume of firearms being returned.

Now the federal government has written to the provinces and some cities, asking them to divert valuable police resources to carry out their program to take guns away from people who do not break the law. Most jurisdictions do not have enough resources to take action against those who break the law.

While Alberta and Saskatchewan openly say they will not help with the new program, even Ontario is urging the FBI to focus on smuggled guns crossing the border.

“Ultimately, we encourage the federal government to focus on the actions needed to stop the root causes of gun violence, as the provincial attorney general said.

This is the kind of hard work the Trudeau administration refused to do. They also had no plan on how to implement this ban and “buyback” before announcing it.