Toronto Police Opt Out of Federal Gun Buyback Program

The Toronto Police Service says it will not participate in the Liberal government’s gun buyback program by collecting firearms from owners in Toronto.

“At this time, we are not participating,” a TPS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a Jan. 20 statement.

TPS said it had requested more information from the government about the buyback, and committed to reviewing the program once more details were provided, but said “no operationally viable plan was presented.”

If a plan and more details are provided, TPS said the police force is still willing  to review the program and consider participating in it.

TPS said it will be focused on targeting criminals who use illegal firearms smuggled from the United States instead of putting resources toward the buyback program.

“We must focus our efforts where they have the greatest public safety impact, including targeting criminals who use illegal firearms, particularly those entering Canada from the United States,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue working with all levels of government on measures that deliver public safety results,” TPS added.

The police service’s comments come after Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told the Toronto Star in a Jan. 20 report that the Toronto Police Service has “expressed that they do not want to take part in the program, and we respect that.”

While the federal government has yet to establish an agreement with any local police forces in Ontario, Anandasangaree said there will be resources to run the program, including mobile collection facilities run by off-duty RCMP or local police officers to collect the prohibited firearms.

Ontario residents will have the option of dropping firearms off at their local mobile collection facility, the minister said, according to the Toronto Star, adding that the government is expecting “fairly decent uptake.”

Anandasangaree also said the program won’t “take away” from existing RCMP or local law enforcement resources, which he said “we fully respect.”

It’s not yet clear whether other police forces in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario’s crime hotspot, will participate in the program.

A Peel Regional Police spokesperson told The Epoch Times the police force is “reviewing the details” of the federal government’s latest announcement about the buyback program, and is “continuing discussions with Public Safety Canada on the involvement of local police.”

Constable Nicholas Gluckstein of the Durham Regional Police Service told The Epoch Times that the police force has “not made a formal decision at this time” regarding the buyback program.

The Epoch Times also contacted York Regional Police and Halton Regional Police for comment on their participation in the program, but did not hear back by publication.

The Toronto Police Association says it supports TPS in its decision not to participate, adding that it “makes no sense” to allocate limited resources towards “this misguided attempt at public safety.”

“Our position has been clear from the beginning: money spent on the buyback program should be directed to police services across the country, rather than on a bureaucratic program with no tangible evidence of success,” the Toronto Police Association said in a Jan. 20 post on X.

Pushback, Agreements

The buyback program has faced significant pushback, with several provinces saying they will not participate, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, as well as the Yukon.

The program has also previously received pushback in Ontario, with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which represents roughly a quarter of the overall policing in the province, declining to participate in the enforcement of the program.

Currently, only the province of Quebec has agreed to comply with the buyback program by signing a “financial contribution agreement” to support the program’s implementation in the province.

The local police forces in Cape Breton and Winnipeg have also signed agreements with the federal government to implement the program in their jurisdictions.

A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service told The Epoch Times on Jan. 20 that Winnipeg’s city council authorized the police force in January 2025 to enter into a “contribution agreement” with Public Safety Canada “to recover the costs incurred by the Winnipeg Police in collecting, transporting and temporarily storing the firearms voluntarily surrendered through the program.”

Nationwide Program

Ottawa has banned approximately 2,500 types of what it calls “assault-style” firearms since 2020, saying the guns were designed for warfare, not sport shooting or hunting.

Ottawa officially launched the federal program on Jan. 19, and eligible gun owners have until March 31 to make an online declaration to receive compensation for a banned firearm. The amnesty period ends on Oct. 30, after which those who still have banned firearms will be considered breaking the law and may face criminal charges.

The federal government has allocated more than $700 million for the buyback initiative, including approximately $250 million in funding to compensate firearms owners for roughly 136,000 guns.

The launch of the nationwide program follows the government’s six-week pilot program in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, last fall to test the program before launching it across the country. The government said it had intended to collect 200 guns during the pilot, but only collected 25 firearms from 16 participants.

Jennifer Cowan contributed to this report.