Province vows not to enforce gun buyback

By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

The Alberta government will not be co-operating with the federal government on its new firearms buyback program.

The province stated on Tuesday afternoon it won’t be enforcing what it calls a “gun grab,” saying it’s not an enforcement priority in Alberta.

The federal government will begin a buyback of assault-style firearms – expected to cost more than $700 million – with a pilot project in Nova Scotia, specifically in select areas of Cape Breton, before expanding it across the country.

Starting Oct. 1, firearms owners can file a declaration of interest at a web portal. They can either deactivate their firearms using a licenced gunsmith or return their weapons to police.

A joint statement from Minister of Justice Mickey Amery and Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, said the province has been clear it opposes any policy that undermines law-abiding  firearms owners, including buyback programs which they say are expensive and ineffective.

“Albertans and Canadians have been rightfully concerned that attacking law-abiding firearms owners does not address the spike in illegal gun crime under the federal Liberal government,” says their statement.

“This confiscation scheme is not about public safety. The federal Minister of Public Safety said himself that he doesn’t think that the police can properly enforce the program and acknowledged that the Ontario Provincial Police will not enforce the program in that province. Further, the minister has made it very clear that they are only keeping this program to satisfy Liberal voters in Quebec,” Amery and Ellis added.

The two ministers say the province has already taken action by stopping Alberta municipalities from “implementing arbitrary patchwork  firearms policies and preventing anyone in Alberta from seizing,  storing or destroying firearms without a licence from Alberta’s Chief Firearms Officer.”

They added the Alberta government expects provincial law enforcement agencies to focus their time and resources on violent criminals and other policing priorities, “not hunters and sport shooters.”

Their statement added “we will also continue to advocate for Alberta to regulate the legal firearms so Albertans can continue to own, collect and use firearms for sport shooting and hunting.”

Ottawa has outlawed about 2,500 types of firearms since 2020. The federal government says the buyback program will give fair compensation to gun owners for their outlawed weapons. An amnesty period has been declared to protect them from criminal liability until they deactivate or turn in their weapons.