Sask. introduces Firearms Act in effort to increase gun owner rights, public safety
Sask. introduces Firearms Act in effort to increase gun owner rights, public safety
The Government of Saskatchewan introduced legislation on Thursday aiming to protect the rights of lawful gun owners and increase public safety.
The announcement comes as the federal government looks to introduce Bill C-21, which is legislation restricting ownership of firearms.
The province said the Saskatchewan Firearms Act will establish licensing requirements for businesses or individuals, require and oversee fair compensation for any guns being seized, and require forensic and ballistic testing of seized firearms.
The act will also establish a provincial firearms regulatory system that will promote the safe use of firearms.
“We want people in this province to be safe and secure as they possibly can,” Christine Tell, Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister said.
The Saskatchewan Firearms Office (SFO) will primarily administer the new piece of legislation, according to a news release.
"The enhanced mandate this legislation provides will expand our office's ability to promote responsible firearms use and improve community safety," Chief Firearms Officer Robert Freberg said in the release.
The government dedicated about $3.2 million this year to begin development of several firearms initiatives, including establishing a lab to support police services, establishing a committee to determine the fair market value of any guns, enhancing training and education, and launching a Saskatchewan marketing campaign to promote gun safety.
“People who are lawfully in possession of firearms, PAL owners who are heavily vetted,” Tell explained. “These people, these legal firearm owners are not the ones committing the crimes.”
NDP MLA Nicole Sarauer said their government wants to ensure it will pass through the legislature.
“Very curious to ask questions about, in particular there are some provisions in there around criminality aspects that just want to make sure this will pass constitutional musters,” Sarauer said.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) believe the province is doing what it can to help out rural residents like ranchers and producers.
“The ranchers, and the farmers, to people that live out in rural areas, I think the provincial reaction is warranted,” Ray Orb, president of SARM explained. “I think some of the things they are proposing will help quite a bit.”
Air-soft guns are also at risk of being banned under Bill C-21, which Strauss said is bad for business.
“As a business, you can’t take the risk of having inventory that turns into dead stock,” Strauss said.
CTV News also reached out to the federal government but have not received a response.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia's nuclear doctrine.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
It took 40 years, but former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan is now one of eight Indigenous ex-NHL-ers being honoured hockey trading cards as a part of Upper Deck's First Peoples Rookie Card series.
Indian police have arrested more than 2,000 men in a crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18 in a northeastern state, officials said Saturday.
After months of driving around the city with an advertisement for a kidney donor on her bright red car, Debbie Onishenko will soon be able to rip off the decals as her search has ended.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
A fire destroyed a popular paint and hobby shop in Winkler Thursday afternoon with black smoke prompting Winkler police to close off a stretch of Highway 32 for more than an hour.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes kept Connor Bedard off the scoresheet for the first time in 36 games, but it wasn't enough, as the 'Canes lost 3-2 to the Regina Pats Friday night.
Alberta's high court is being asked to overturn a review board decision relating to the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party on the grounds the former provincial justice minister interfered.
An Edmonton man who received a ticket from the city under the phase 2 residential parking ban earlier this week says his street has finally been plowed — five days after his vehicle was ticketed.
Marc, Seth and Zacary James are the Melisizwe Brothers, and they performed at Jasper Place High School on Friday as part of Edmonton Public School Black History Month celebrations.
Technology in Alberta that is expected to allow doctors to more accurately and effectively treat cancerous tumours with radiation enters clinical trials next week.
After being charged with speeding by a city-operated photo radar device, a Toronto family was able to successfully fight the charge in court largely due to one small detail.
Torontonians appear to be returning downtown in greater numbers but the pace of the city’s economic recovery still lags behind many other North American cities, a new study suggests.
The mayors of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody want Nav Canada — the organization that creates flight paths for airports across the country — to pause its plans for a new YVR arrivals route that will direct many large airplanes over their communities.
Seventy-nine-year-old William Herbert thought the woman coming to see him was a nurse who needed to do bloodwork. But instead of helping him, it’s alleged she stole from him.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
A Quebec university study found that nearly three years of the pandemic have had an effect on the travel habits of Quebecers: even with the partial or complete lifting of restrictions, they increasingly prefer to travel at home. The most recent Cahier des tendances published by the Transat Chair in Tourism at the École des sciences de la gestion de l'UQAM revealed that inflation and health measures hurt many Quebecers.
An emergency room doctor on Vancouver Island is calling on the leadership of the health authority to resign, saying harassment by Island Health officials is prompting doctors to abandon the region amid a critical shortage of health-care workers.
With all of the Maritimes still under extreme cold warnings Saturday morning, more than 34,000 households and businesses are without power, as of 11 a.m.
Canada's newest millionaire, an 18-year-old university freshman from northern Ontario, has achieved a lot of firsts with a recent lottery win. Here is her story.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Waterloo regional police issued a robbery warning Thursday evening after they said two convenience stores and a restaurant in Kitchener were robbed within a 30 minute span.
