The provincial government has sent a letter to the head of the Saskatchewan RCMP, Rhonda Blackmore, regarding the prohibited gun buy-back.
Minister of Corrections, policing and public safety Christine Tell said in the letter that the government does not approve of the use of provincially funded resources for any process connected to the buy-back.
The 2020 Order in Council by the Liberal government, Tell wrote, will not impact crime in any significant way.
She said the vast majority of crimes are not committed by legal guns or their owners, but by illegally smuggled guns and those with a criminal history.
“This was most recently and poignantly confirmed in a tragic shooting event in Toronto in which a police officer was killed,” Tell’s letter, which was provided to media this afternoon but dated Tuesday, read. “Chief Tanner from the Halton POlice Service established that the suspect was not a legal gun owner. In fact, the shooter had a long criminal history and would never have been able to possess a firearm legally in Canada.”
The order in council came after the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in May, 2020, where 22 people were gunned down by a killer with illegal or restricted guns, and no possession and acquisition licence.
Alberta’s justice minister Tyler Shandro said Tuesday the potential seizure of assault style weapons is politically motivated and that Alberta would not agree to have RCMP officers act as confiscation agents.
