With a funding increase of $700,000 for the current year, growing to more than $7 million next year and $5.2 million the year after, the ACFO will be able to hire 40 new positions.
With these new resources in place, the ACFO will be able to process licence applications, transfers, authorizations to carry and other administrative tasks faster and right here in Alberta.
“Boosting resources to the Alberta Chief Firearms Office means law-abiding firearms owners in Alberta won’t have to wait while their applications and transfers are held up by bureaucratic red tape in Eastern Canada. This is one more way Alberta’s government is standing up to Ottawa’s ridiculous firearms agenda and asserting our provincial autonomy.”
“The firearms program administered by the RCMP in Miramichi, N.B., is both poorly managed and subject to the political whims of Ottawa. Our province has the third-largest and fastest-growing rate of firearms ownership in the country. By greatly expanding the Chief Firearms Office, Alberta’s government will be able to provide faster and more efficient service and will be better positioned to protect firearms owners’ property rights.”
Recent federal legislation has effectively banned handguns, leading to an unprecedented increase in sales and transfers of more than 178,000 handguns since spring. Typically, applications are processed out of Miramichi, N.B., by the Canadian Firearms Program, administered by the RCMP, and wait times have ballooned to up to six months.
The Alberta Chief Firearms Office was created in 2021 to assert provincial jurisdiction over firearms policy, in part by processing such matters within the province.