Federal minister calls Alberta minister's pushback to firearm buyback 'reckless'
CBC
The federal minister of public safety says Alberta's justice minister is engaging in "political brinkmanship" regarding Ottawa's assault weapon buyback program — and the RCMP's role in it.
The federal government banned more than 1,500 assault-style weapons in 2020 – now, they're preparing to buy back those weapons.
It's a move that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said will require local police forces and the RCMP.
But Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro said he's taking action to ensure the province will not be participating in the program. Saskatchewan's minister of policing and public safety has also pushed back, as has Manitoba's minister of justice.
Speaking to CBC's The House on Saturday, Mendicino said he wants to be clear: the regulation of firearms falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.
He said Shandro is mischaracterizing the program and the RCMP's role in it.
The buyback program will require a number of partners in the public safety community, including the RCMP, to help facilitate the surrender, the compensation and ultimately the destruction of the guns, Mendicino said.
"That somehow, by asking RCMP to ensure that we're getting these guns off of their streets that cuts against the grain of public safety, it's the opposite," he said. "[Shandro] is regrettably engaged in, I think, some political brinkmanship which is counterproductive and reckless."
"There's no ambiguity about the relationship that exists between Canada and Alberta as it relates to the role of the RCMP … the RCMP is a federal entity and matters relating to the control management and administration of the RCMP are within exclusive federal jurisdiction."
Mendicino said his letters to provincial and territorial governments — which his office shared with the media — were seeking collaboration in order to implement the program.
"What we got back from the Alberta solicitor general is a political stunt. He knows full well that matters that relate to the enforcement of the Criminal Code and the firearms laws are exclusively within the jurisdiction of the federal government," he said.
Shandro previously said Alberta will not agree to having RCMP officers act as confiscation agents and will protest any such move under the provincial-federal agreement that governs policing.
"Alberta taxpayers pay over $750 million per year for the RCMP and we will not tolerate taking officers off the streets in order to confiscate the property of law-abiding firearms owners," said Shandro, speaking at a news conference in Calgary.
Alberta is exercising existing authorities to identify the "confiscation plan" as an activity that is not appropriate for the RCMP to be used for, he wrote in a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday.
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