Tell shoots down planned federal firearms buyback program

No provincial money will be used to administer or enforce a planned federal government gun buyback program.

That’s according to Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell, who called it a “confiscation program.”

Tell wrote a two-page letter to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore on Sept. 27, indicating “it would seem to be counterintuitive to take our front line resources from our provincial policing service to carry out a federally mandated administrative program.”

Tell said while she anticipates a future meeting with the RCMP on the matter, the province is in the driver’s seat.

“Under the provincial police services agreement with the RCMP, the provincial government sets the priorities for the RCMP in the province,” she said in a subsequent interview.

Each year, the provincial government pays 70 per cent of the RCMP’s contract, or around $211 million. The federal government pays the remaining 30 per cent. If the RCMP went ahead with enforcing the planned buyback program, Tell said a number of options would be on the table, including possible funding cuts.

“However, we are hopeful the RCMP will take the letter in the spirit and intent it was written, communicating the fact that the province of Saskatchewan does not in any way support buyback or confiscation of personal property,” Tell said.

Municipal police forces such as the Regina and Saskatoon police services are not funded by the provincial government, and Tell said the government would not direct municipal police services on what they should do.

“However, I think everybody needs to have a really common understanding here that legal gun owners are heavily vetted every which way (and) that legal gun owners are not the issue,” she added. “Criminals using trafficked, stolen firearms committing criminal acts are the issue.”

Therefore, she said, if the federal government was not addressing those particular issues, she questioned what confiscating guns from legal gun owners had to do with public safety.

Tell said Saskatchewan’s stance on the matter should not be surprising in any way to the federal government.

“(There would be support) if there was any element in what they are proposing to do that affected or enhanced public safety in the province of Saskatchewan, but it does not. Legal gun (and) firearms owners are not the problem … so what are (federal government officials) attempting to solve?” asked Tell.

“I don’t think anybody is going to be surprised by this.”

Alberta and Manitoba have also expressed concerns about, and opposition to, the buyback program.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of this story, correcting errors made during the editing process.