Owners of banned assault-style firearms in Canada have until March 31, 2026, to declare their participation in a federal program offering compensation for turning in or permanently deactivating their guns.
According to a release posted on Saturday, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree announced the program in Montreal, alongside Secretary of State Nathalie Provost and Québec Minister of Public Security Ian Lafrenière.
The voluntary initiative aims to remove dangerous firearms from Canadian communities while ensuring law-abiding owners receive fair compensation.
“Assault-style firearms do not belong in our communities. These types of firearms were designed as weapons of war,” Anandasangaree said in a statement.
“Prohibiting and removing them from our communities is an important part of our government’s commitment to tackling gun violence and keeping Canadians safe.”
The declaration period for eligible firearm licence holders begins Monday, with notifications sent directly to valid Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) holders.
“The deadlines are real, please heed them,” Anandasangaree said at the news conference.
Submissions can be made online or by mail, and compensation will be distributed primarily on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on available funds.
Following the declaration period, approved participants will schedule appointments to surrender their prohibited firearms to the RCMP, local police or a mobile collection unit for validation and destruction.
Since May 2020, Ottawa has banned approximately 2,500 makes and models of assault-style firearms, including the AR-15, on the grounds they are designed for military use and have no place in civilian communities.
Prohibited firearms must be disposed of or permanently deactivated by the end of the amnesty period on Oct. 30, 2026.
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Those in possession after that date could face criminal charges and lose their firearms licences.
Federal officials said nearly $250 million has been set aside to compensate participants, covering an estimated 136,000 firearms.
Secretary of State Nathalie Provost said the program marks a significant step in addressing gun violence.
“For more than 35 years, Canadians have been calling for stricter gun control measures to help prevent deadly mass shootings,” Provost said in a release. “We are taking a significant step towards making our communities safer today as we continue the implementation of an efficient Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program for individuals.”
Owners who choose not to participate can still comply with the law by permanently deactivating their firearms at their own expense, surrendering them to police without compensation, or exporting them with the proper permits.
However, the program is facing resistance from several provinces, including Alberta, Ontario, N.B, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have said they will not administer the program.
Meanwhile, critics argue the program is costly and ineffective.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released a statement calling on Ottawa to scrap the initiative, pointing to a pilot project in Cape Breton that collected only 25 firearms despite a target of 200.
“The failed Cape Breton pilot project should have proven to Ottawa it’s time scrap this program,” said Gage Haubrich, the CTF’s Prairie director. “Ottawa needs to listen to the law enforcement experts who are calling for support to stop illegal guns rather than confiscating guns from licensed gun owners.”
Gun owners’ advocates also voiced concerns shortly after the announcement, stating that compensation may fall far short of what was promised.
“The government has chosen to move forward with this wasteful, ineffective and divisive program, and in a way that betrays the trust of all Canadians who are affected by the initiative.”
CCFR says more than two million firearms were reclassified as prohibited under recent bans, while the government has indicated it intends to compensate owners for roughly 152,000 firearms.
“They’ve also said publicly that when the budget runs out, no one else is getting paid,” the group said in the statement. “This is going to result in over 90 per cent of gun owners being ripped off.”
The program builds on a previous federal pilot for businesses that ran from November 2024 to April 2025, which collected and destroyed more than 12,000 prohibited firearms.
The 2026 program will include firearms prohibited in December 2024 and March 2025, in addition to those banned in May 2020.
The government said that the program is part of a broader strategy to reduce gun violence, which also includes hiring additional RCMP and Canada Border Services officers, restricting access to handguns, and reviewing the national firearms classification system.
For more information, visit the Government of Canada website.
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