‘Keep up the good work.’That’s the message Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is giving the Liberal government amid reports that it has spent $42 million on its national gun grab program without collecting a single firearm to date.Speaking in Calgary on Tuesday, Smith — tongue firmly in cheek — said she’s encouraged by the results of the program to date and said she hope it continues.“I think it’s a success that they haven't been able to seize a single law abiding gun,” she said. “And I wish them continuing success of being able to achieve zero compliance within the program and we are not going to do anything to help them.”.“We believe that the issue is the illegal firearms getting into the hands of gangs and organized crime coming across the border. And the federal government should be focused on that. Not focusing on taking guns away from sports shooters, duck hunters and and farmers,”Danielle Smith.In May, 2020 the Liberal government implemented an amnesty order on more than 1,500 types of what it calls ‘assault style’ weapons that will expire on October 30, 2025. The ban was implemented after the Nova Scotia mass murder of 22 people on April 18 and 19, 2020.In the meantime it is in the process of designing a buyback program to provide for “fair compensation for eligible businesses and individuals who possess these prohibited firearms.” According to Public Safety Canada records, it had spent $41,904,556 and hired 60 employees to work on a program that doesn’t even officially exist yet. Some estimates suggest it could cost as much as $2 billion by the time all is said and done.The government estimates as many as 200,000 of the offending firearms are in the hands of Canadian individuals and businesses. But most guns used in crimes are in fact smuggled into Canada from the US — the exact number of those is unknown. .According to Public Safety Canada records, it had spent $41,904,556 and hired 60 employees to work on a program that doesn’t even officially exist..Critics say the government is preoccupying itself with an expensive program whose impact on Canada’s crime epidemic will be negligible. Smith happens to be one of them.“We believe that the issue is the illegal firearms getting into the hands of gangs and organized crime coming across the border. And the federal government should be focused on that. Not focusing on taking guns away from sports shooters, duck hunters and farmers,” Smith said.
