According to a Sept. 23 news release, the implementation of Ottawa’s voluntary Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program (ASFCP) for “individual firearms owners” is to begin in Cape Breton and is expected to run for around six weeks.
“Participation in the pilot is voluntary and will be conducted in collaboration with the Cape Breton Regional Police,” states the release. “It will test the online portal, the collection and destruction process, as well as the system for issuing compensation payments to participants.”
Following this “small-scale” pilot, the project will go national. Eligible firearms owners across Canada “will be contacted by mail or email to provide them with the information needed to take part in the program and declare their prohibited firearms,” the release goes on to state.
Those who choose not to participate in the program will not be able to seek compensation and will have to get rid of their illegal guns by “exporting” them, deactivating them or handing them over to police before the end of the amnesty period.
“The compensation program is an option for individual firearm owners and businesses to seek compensation and dispose of their prohibited firearms before the end of the amnesty period,” it states.
Since May 2020, the federal government has outlawed more than 2,000 types of assault-style firearms.
Earlier this year, the buyback program was started for businesses and “ran successfully for firearms prohibited in May 2020, and closed on April 30, 2025.”
More than 12,000 firearms were collected.
A backgrounder page from the federal government states that the business program will reopen in fall 2025 to accept firearms that were prohibited in December 2024 and March 2025. That program will continue to accept those guns outlawed in May 2020, it states.
A separate webpage states that the program “will provide fair compensation for eligible businesses and individuals who possess these prohibited firearms and devices and participate in the program.”
As for individual gun owners, only those who hold a valid firearms licence will be able to participate in the buyback program, it states.
But the program has had its share of detractors. It has faced criticism from some opposition politicians and various groups, with some questioning its effectiveness and whether it is a good use of taxpayer money.
Gary Anandasangaree, Federal Minister of Public Safety
This reportedly prompted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to criticize the program’s use of compensation money, calling the initiative a politically motivated endeavour.
Not long after the federal government’s announcement about the Nova Scotia pilot, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR) was quick to denounce the program as an ineffective way of increasing public safety.
“No reasonable expert believes spending a billion dollars removing firearms exclusively from licensed gun owners is going to result in increased public safety. Even the Liberal government knows this,” stated the CCFR. “And let there be no doubt, the government is full of experts, and they’ve known this all along.”
It was also quick to point out Anandasangaree’s leaked comments.
As it has done before, it accused Canada’s government of targeting lawful gun owners.
“The truth is that the Liberal government is wasting a billion dollars on this politically motivated program,” it states. “It’s clearly obvious that the Liberals are wasting a tremendous amount of money at a time when Canada can least afford it. All of this, to sidestep any accountability for a decade of crime violence [and] mayhem that they themselves have caused in Canada.”
Criticism also came from gun control advocates. PolyRemembers, formed after the 1989 mass shooting at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, called for Ottawa to also outlaw new sales of the Soviet-designed SKS gun — a military-grade weapon — and to remove from circulation “modern versions of the SKS that have the same firing power … as banned assault weapons.”
In a statement regarding the Nova Scotia pilot, Anandasangaree spoke of the need for greater public safety.
“We are serious about removing assault-style firearms from our streets, limiting the devastating effects of firearms violence and helping make Canada safer,” said Anandasangaree. “These assault-style firearms are largely designed to kill people, not for hunting or sport shooting and have no place in Canada.”
When Anandasangaree took questions from reporters later that day, he was asked about his leaked comments around police lacking the ability to enforce the program.
“The context of that conversation, of course, it was … in a context of a scenario that was offered to me, and it was commentary on that,” said Anandasangaree. “In terms of the ability of police, I have every confidence that law-abiding citizens, first of all, will ensure compliance with the law. Secondly, I also have every confidence that law enforcement will be able to do their job and to ensure the implementation of the Criminal Code. Canada is a rule-of-law country, so if it is in the Criminal Code, it is imperative that police … are able to implement that law.”
— With files from Cristin Schmitz
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