Trudeau’s gun buyback reaches $42 million spent, without a single firearm purchased
By Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
The federal government has now spent nearly $42 million in taxpayer funds on its “firearms buyback program,” first introduced in 2020 to confiscate guns deemed illegal by the Liberals.
However, despite the costly spending, not a single firearm has been purchased from Canadians.
Conservative Sen. Don Plett filed an order paper question in September, asking Public Safety Canada to reveal how much money had been spent over the past four years on the program, which assigned 60 department employees to work on the project.
The response revealed that $41,094,556 had already been spent since 2020.
“This is a boondoggle, and it hasn’t even begun,” said Plett during the Senate question period on Friday.
“How can your government have spent $42 million on this, when not a single firearm has been bought back?” Plett asked government representative Sen. Marc Gold.
Documents also revealed that a contract of $2.27 million was awarded to IBM to develop, design and implement the program. However, Public Safety Canada initially said that it would only cost half that figure during its 2020 announcement of the program.
According to the documents, the RCMP has 15 full-time employees devoted to the program and Service Canada also assigned two employees, while Public Services and Procurement Canada said that it has devoted “the equivalent of 5.825 full-time employees” as well.