REGINA – Changes have been announced to amend The Saskatchewan Firearms Act, one of which would allow firearms owners to be able to store their prohibited firearms themselves.
The province confirmed that under the legislation Saskatchewan firearms owners and businesses would be able to apply for a certificate of exemption, allowing them to retain the right to continue to possess and store the prohibited firearms on the province’s behalf while waiting for the fair market value to be addressed.
The aim, according to the province, is to protect legal firearms owners targeted by the federal gun buyback program, whose firearms are prohibited under the new legislation but who would be seeking fair market value for those firearms they would have to turn in.
The government has opposed the federal gun buyback program and is not participating in it, and Premier Moe reiterated those sentiments to SARM delegates Wednesday.
“It won’t be funded by the province as long as I’m there, so no one will show up at your doorstep and say ‘we need to gather up your firearms.’”
But that still leaves the problem for gun owners of what to do with the prohibited firearms they have. Moe noted legitimate firearms owners “could be deemed a criminal by the federal government” under the federal legislation.
The other issue is that because the province isn’t participating in the federal program and isn’t collecting the firearms, there is a need for the province and Feds to figure out where the prohibited firearms are actually going to be stored.
To address this, the province will “authorize each and every firearm owner across this province to store their own firearms, do the province a favour and actually the federal government a favour — they just don’t realize it yet,” said Moe to SARM delegates.
Under this plan, firearms owners and businesses will apply to the province for a certificate of exemption, and then be able to store the firearms legally, safely and securely without fear of prosecution under the Criminal Code. The certificates would then stay in place until the firearms owners are fairly compensated by the federal government, according to the province.
In speaking to reporters, Moe faced particular questions on whether this move by the province is breaking the federal law when it passes.
“No, no, it’s actually complying with it,” Moe said.
“We’re going to authorize, as I said, Saskatchewan gun owners to be able to store their own guns. They’re doing really us and the federal government a favour by doing so. We don’t have to go out and find a facility, or the federal government doesn’t have to go out and find a facility to store those guns. And, you know, our hope would be that they’d store them for a period of time and then ultimately this law would be backed up, it would be pulled. But that’s where we are, unfortunately, in a case where you have provincial governments essentially legislating their way through a federal piece of legislation that is flawed, in our opinion.”
As for how Saskatchewan gun owners would be able to store the prohibited weapons without getting in trouble with the law, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Tim McLeod pointed to an exemption under section 117.08 of the Criminal Code that would allow legal gun owners to be able to store guns on the province’s behalf.
McLeod was also asked by reporters if this was skirting the federal law.
“No, quite to the contrary,” McLeod said. “We’re utilizing the law. Section 117.08 of the Criminal Code is not a new section. We’re simply utilizing it for its intended purpose, which is to exempt individuals who are acting for the benefit of or on behalf of a province or a federal government.”
McLeod explained some more how their amendments worked, going back to last fall.
“What we’ve done with these amendments is simply say that if the federal government is going to say that your firearm is illegal, they’re effectively devaluing the gun. They, first of all, they need to be licensed to come and seize the weapon in Saskatchewan. But further to that, if the gun, even if the gun isn’t seized, it’s devalued because it’s now effectively worthless because they’ve made it illegal. That’s a deemed seizure. And so the federal government owes fair market value for that. They’ve come up with their arbitrary compensation, which is insufficient and will not be sufficient to compensate all the firearms owners across the country, much less across our province.”
What the province has said, McLeod says, is the Feds “have to provide fair market value. And until they do, you can continue to store your own firearm if you are storing it in an appropriate way, in a safe and secure way. And by doing that, you’re doing that for the benefit of the province so that we don’t have to do it on your behalf.”
“And that’s where the exemption under Section 117 of the Criminal Code comes in. You’re exempt from prosecution if the federal government has declared your firearm illegal. If you are doing us the benefit of continuing to store that firearm securely, but you have to register through the Saskatchewan Firearms Office so that we know that your firearm is, in fact, impacted by the federal legislation and is stored in a safe, secure manner, consistent with the law.”
When asked if it was a slippery slope for the province to go looking for Criminal Code loopholes to do what it wants to do, McLeod said “I don’t think so.”
“I think what this highlights is that the federal government’s plan was flawed from the outset. It’s a poor plan. It’s targeting the wrong people and it’s poorly designed. And so this is an opportunity for us to really highlight one of the flaws in their plan, which is that they’re targeting the wrong people, that they’re already safely and securely storing these firearms. They’re licensed, law-abiding firearms owners, and they can continue to store their firearm as long as they continue to do so safely in a law-abiding way.”
The government says in a news release that in the next few weeks they will open an online portal to provide appraisals for all firearms, ammunition and accessories impacted by the federal legislation. Firearms owners and businesses will be able to request certificates of exemption for their prohibited firearms through that portal as well.
