(Rewrites headline and first paragraph.)
TheGunBlog.ca — The Canadian government said it’s unable to provide the cost, design or plan for its mass gun confiscations after six years of work and $70 million spent on a crackdown that could waste billions.
Basic Questions
Shelby Kramp-Neuman, a member of parliament with the Conservative Party, in May asked the Liberal Party-led administration 12 questions about the forced seizures they ordered in May 2020 including:
- How much they will cost
- What date they will begin
- How they will be executed
- What proof exists to justify them
- Why the Liberals ordered them by decree instead of going through parliament
The Department of Public Safety, which is directing the attack against government-licensed firearm users, responded this week with background and unrelated statistics before concluding that it’s unable to address her questions.
‘Not Able’ To Provide Answers
“At this time, the Government is not able to provide additional answers as the questions being posed touch upon issues of Program design that are still being developed,” the department said.
The Ottawa-based organization submitted its response to Kramp-Neuman in the House of Commons on September 16.
See the full PDF below.
Why It Matters
- The response confirms the Liberals have no idea how to execute their mass confiscation fantasy and overcome massive grassroots and institutional opposition, plus legislative and logistical obstacles.
- They’ve designed it to fail by pushing their confiscation deadline until 30 October 2025, after the next election. Targeted gun owners expect the Conservatives will win and cancel the Liberal attacks.
- The confiscation fantasy already stands as a leading example of bad governance and policy for its authoritarianism, financial waste, and dangerous undermining of trust and safety.
$70 Million Spent Already
Separately, in a response to questions from Senator Don Plett, also a Conservative, the government said it has spent almost $70 million on the confiscation effort.
- Department of Public Safety: $56.1 million
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police: $13.4 million
Plett published the information on his personal account on the X platform on September 17.
The amounts exclude millions of dollars in expenses by provincial governments, firearm offices and police, and by municipal governments and police.
Context
- The Liberals ordered their criminalization of hundreds of thousands of government licensed firearm owners and businesses on 01 May 2020.
- They began studying the idea of the crackdown in August 2018.
- An internal Department of Justice memo from late 2019 budgeted about $2 billion for the attacks.