Just a month after asking the private sector for help in arranging a gun grab buyout package, the federal Liberals have cancelled the project..Public Safety Canada had invited 15 consulting firms in August to come up with a range of options and approaches for the planned program to compensate gun owners..It’s expected any plan will cost taxpayers billions of dollars..A spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada said at the time options that emerge from the selected contractor “may be incorporated into a final program. Costs will be available once a provider is selected.”.But now the ad has a big “cancelled” across it..Pubic Safety said any plan would would require the successful bidder to consult with other federal agencies, possibly other levels of government and industry experts to devise options that include compensation plans for each affected firearm, analysis of benefits and risks associated with each compensation model and the identification of “other considerations” that might affect the feasibility of each approach..The first phase of the work was expected to be complete by the end of March. .The invited bidders were well-known firms such as Deloitte, IBM Canada, KPMG and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, though Public Safety had not ruled out other entries..Trudeau’s Liberal government announced in May they are banning 1,500 different makes and models of what he called “military-style” and “assault-style” guns in Canada..The ban comes into effect immediately and was ordered by the cabinet without any bill or debate in Parliament..In response to the federal order, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province will look at appointing its own firearms officer..A Canadian firearms expert said the Trudeau Liberal government’s plan to buy buy recently prohibited firearms from Canadian gun owners could end up costing up to $5-billion..Gary Mauser, Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, said whatever plan the Liberals come up with will likely end up being a billion-dollar boondoggle..“Minister (Bill) Blair claimed the cost for the “buy back” of roughly 250,000 firearms would be between $400 million and $600 million—$375 million for the guns and presumably the rest for overhead. That is, if owners comply,” Mauser wrote in a January blog, published before the firearms ban was announced..“However, the actual full cost of the ‘buy back’ won’t be $600 million; it will be much more..“Focusing on reimbursement costs is misleading because it ignores the biggest expense—staffing costs. Prohibiting and confiscating an estimated 250,000 firearms is a complex undertaking and would involve considerable government resources. It’s impossible to do with current police resources.”.Mauser wrote that if everything went according to plan for setting up the infrastructure to buy back weapons could be up to $2.7 billion..“Based on these assumptions, confiscating 250,000 firearms would cost the Canadian taxpayer between $1.6 billion to almost $5 billion in the first year. This estimate excludes travel costs and any ministerial administrators,” he wrote.. POLL: Many Albertans say they will ignore Christmas COVID lockdown .“Remember, this is just part of the costs to taxpayers for the “buy back.” These estimates do not include the $600 million the government promises to pay owners who surrender their firearms.”.Numerous lawsuits have been filed to try and stop the gun grab..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
