The numbers are in: Cape Breton’s gun grab is costing nearly $7,000 per firearm
Parliament records confirm the program is a financial disaster before it even launches nationally.
The federal Liberals’ gun-confiscation pilot in Cape Breton has officially gone off the rails. Thanks to CBC News reporting and new disclosures from Order Paper Question Q-422, we now know exactly how many guns were collected — and how much taxpayers spent to get them.
How many guns were collected?
According to CBC, Cape Breton Regional Police Commission chair Coun. Glenn Paruch says he has heard police have bought back “up to 22 firearms.”
That’s it. Twenty-two guns out of a projected 200, which is roughly an 11% participation rate in the pilot zone.
How much did Ottawa pay for this pilot?
From Order Paper Q-422, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is being paid:
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$23,759 for fiscal year 2024–2025
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$126,001 for fiscal year 2025–2026
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Total federal funding: $149,760
The real cost per firearm:
$149,760 ÷ 22 guns = $6,807 per gun
Nearly $7,000 spent for each firearm collected — and the pilot isn’t even finished.
This is only the logistics funding: collection, verification, storage, shipment, and “contingency destruction capacity.”
It does not include cost overruns, destruction costs, federal administration, national rollout expenses, or the upcoming multi-year amnesty extension.
The national implications
Ottawa is also paying Winnipeg $2.54 million next year (from the same Order Paper answer) to process a projected 3,881 firearms — projections now looking wildly optimistic given Cape Breton’s 22-gun reality.
The entire scheme only works if Canadians voluntarily hand over their guns. And Cape Breton just proved they won’t.
This pilot was supposed to demonstrate the program’s feasibility. Instead, it demonstrated the opposite: massive costs, minimal compliance, and a confiscation regime collapsing before it even begins.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.
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COMMENTS
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Peter Wrenshall commented 2025-11-26 18:38:43 -0500Give up your guns voluntarily. Or else. Much as they like to in Ottawa, they can’t even manipulate language in order to deceive us competently, for which we should be thankful. -
Terri Carter commented 2025-11-26 18:34:13 -0500I don’t really care about what the liberals do.. what so disturbs me is how they treat my father, cousins, uncles, aunts thay are the people in my family who fed us. My grandmother canned jars of deer meat in the creek in beaverdell. I am so sick of this govt dividing our people.
My grandmother never titled herself for any benefits. I just know she was a brownish woman working till she was in 70s Color that. 🧡❤️
I gotta say fuck you anyone who says I divide never will and won’t. -
Bruce Atchison commented 2025-11-25 19:46:26 -0500Stupid people never understand how stupidly stupid they are. So the brain-dead Liberals will push this nonsense on the whole country and to blazes with the cost. Their idiotic idealism makes them impervious to common sense. And that makes them wonder why citizens are so loathe to give up their private property.
