Liberals push back launch of firearm 'buyback' program for individuals until January

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government is pushing back the expected launch of its “buyback” program for individual gun owners, whose firearms the government has banned, from this fall until January 2026. 

Back in September, when Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced that the government would be piloting a small-scale version of the program in parts of Cape Breton, N.S., the minister stated that the goal was to ensure it ran smoothly “before we open the program nationwide later in the fall.”

A Public Safety Canada webpage dedicated to providing users with information on the program also states fall as the launch date. Last month, Anandasangaree’s office said the program would launch “before the end of 2025.”

With the House of Commons rising for its holiday recess on Thursday, a statement from the minister’s office clarified that the government was now working towards a new launch date in the new year.

“(The Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program) for individuals will be launched in January 2026,” wrote spokesman Simon Lafortune. 

“We will share the exact date in due course.”

The minister’s office did not explain the reason behind the delay. Earlier in the day, Anandasangaree told reporters that the government was waiting for a “couple of items to be sorted out” before launching the program in the “very near future.”

“We’ve had to make some minor adjustments to our technology, so we’re confident that’s working.”

The minister added that officials encountered some “technical glitches,” which have since been corrected, with testing underway in anticipation of a national launch.

The government has committed to releasing the results from the pilot in Cape Breton ahead of the program’s national launch.

The six-week pilot included an initial period for firearms owners to register, followed by a collection and compensation process.

It targeted firearms owners living in three areas of Cape Breton: Sydney, North Sydney, and Glace Bay, according to a letter shared with National Post, which was sent to possession and acquisition licence holders in the region.

Launching a national compensation program has been a longstanding promise of the Liberals, first made under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. It was aimed at removing what the government deemed to be “assault-style” weapons unfit for public use, such as the AR-15.

Since May 2020, the Liberals have banned more than 2,500 makes and models of firearms through three separate announcements.

In launching the pilot, officials said that no more than 200 of these firearms would be collected. However, some reports suggest that actual interest in the program may have been much lower.

Last month, the chair of Cape Breton’s police board told reporters that he had heard there were between “10 to 22 collected.”

Firearms owners and their lobby groups pointed to those figures to underscore their opposition and belief that Carney ought to ditch the effort altogether, saying such low results show individual firearms owners reject taking part in the “buyback” program.

Meanwhile, gun-control advocates have called for the Liberals to make good on their longstanding commitment.

While not speaking to specific figures from the pilot, Anandasangaree has said that it proved successful in ensuring that the system worked.

PolySeSouvient, a group formed in the wake of the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique shooting, where 14 women were killed, has also called on the Liberals to ban new sales of more modern versions of the SKS, a semi-automatic rifle popular for hunting, particularly in Indigenous communities, warning that should it fail to do so, the national compensation program would be for naught.

The Liberals recently announced that another expert advisory group was being asked to study the issue, following an expert panel that did so last year. The government has said more consultation is needed when it comes to potential impacts on treaty-rights holders, given the popularity of the SKS for Indigenous hunters.

National Post

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