Ottawa, ON – Shannon Stubbs, Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness issued the following statement in response to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report on the cost of the Liberal’s buy back program:
“Canadians are now seeing the true cost of Trudeau’s agenda: up to $1 billion will be wasted taking away legal firearms from law-abiding Canadian citizens. This is three times what Minister Blair predicted. If Trudeau was serious about tackling gun crime, this money would’ve been directed at tackling organized crime and gun smuggling. All Canadians will have to bear the cost of the Liberal Government’s incompetence.

“The Liberals have refused to release details surrounding their failed firearms polices. The PBO were forced to use industry sources, rather than government knowledge, and didn’t include any researched administrative costs, and was forced to base their estimates on data on foreign countries. Just as the Liberals withheld legislative information from the House, committees, and the Canadian public, they are now withholding information from the PBO. This proves yet again that the Trudeau Government is the most secretive in Canadian history.

“Minister Blair has repeatedly misled Canadians, the media and Parliament. This work by the Parliamentary Budget Office makes it clear the Liberals need to stop blocking the real costs of their reckless spending and explain their decisions to spending this money on a firearm confiscation, instead of making our communities safer.

“This costing is a depressing reminder of the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted by Liberals pursuing an ideological agenda. $1 billion would be better spent on community programs, police anti-gang and illegal gun units, and the CBSA, to stop illegal smuggling operations and get dangerous criminals and gangs off the streets. Trudeau’s buyback program will be another billion-dollar boondoggle like the first Liberal gun registry.

“Conservatives have, and will always, support common-sense firearms policies that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals. This buy back program, and the Order in Council, will do nothing to keep Canadians safe, and Conservatives call for this wasteful and unnecessary political debacle to be scrapped immediately. While the Liberal Government attacked law-abiding Canadians, they reduced sentences for serious crimes like in Bill C-22.

“If you don't care about protecting public safety and respecting law-abiding firearms owners, there are three parties to choose from. If you do, there is only one choice to secure Canada's future: Canada's Conservatives.”

For more information:

  Office of Shannon Stubbs, M.P.
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613-992-4171
 

Office of Richard Martel, M.P.
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581-306-7562