CTF's *court bid* for RCMP buyback cost records

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has asked the Federal Court for a hearing in its fight over RCMP gun-confiscation cost records. The registry records the request on October 2 and its referral for scheduling on October 8. Taxpayers still need the figures that started the dispute.

Juno brought the case back into view in an October 16 report. The underlying application goes back to March. What deserves attention now is the effort required to inspect the operational estimates behind a policy imposed on licensed owners, alongside a federal funding envelope of $742.5 million.

As a licensed owner and a taxpayer, I find that combination hard to accept. I am expected to keep my end of the paperwork in order. Ottawa should be able to explain what its programme is expected to cost, what it has spent, and what benefit it expects Canadians to receive.

Two requests and a court application

The applicants' notice describes two requests. A July 2023 request produced an RCMP British Columbia implementation plan in January 2024. CTF then requested similar plans from the remaining divisions. Those records are the subject of this dispute.

According to the application, the RCMP initially withheld them under security and advice provisions, then relied on Cabinet confidence. It says that position was withdrawn in November 2025 and reasserted in January 2026. The applicants also recount a February 5 Information Commissioner report that found their complaint not well founded.

Gage Haubrich and CTF seek disclosure or, alternatively, a fresh decision by a different decision-maker. Their argument is that operational implementation plans fall outside the claimed exclusion. The pleading sets out their position; the court must decide it.

The official registry gives this case a number, T-1388-26, and a March 16 filing date. The public notice is dated March 13. The October entries concern scheduling. At this writing, the registry entries checked for this article supply neither a hearing date nor a final decision on disclosure.

What Cabinet confidence protects

Cabinet ministers need room to examine options, disagree, and receive confidential advice before reaching decisions. That is a legitimate part of governing, including governing a programme I oppose.

Section 69 of the Access to Information Act excludes specified Cabinet confidences from the access regime. Its categories include recommendations to Cabinet, records of deliberations, and information about those records. Applying that exclusion can prevent the Information Commissioner from examining the underlying material.

CTF argues that the divisional plans concern the practical business of implementation. The applicants describe staffing, transport, storage, and projected expenses, and question why comparable information from British Columbia was released. Government guidance allows that documents prepared outside Cabinet can reveal its deliberations; purpose and use matter. Whether these plans qualify requires scrutiny of the actual records and the government's legal position.

The government should explain that position as fully as the law permits. Taxpayers can accept that some advice remains confidential while expecting a useful public account of collection costs. A department can publish an intelligible costing without publishing every ministerial discussion that preceded it.

The $742.5 million needs its labels

Public Safety's briefing for a May 28, 2026 committee appearance supplies a useful starting point. It describes a total funding envelope of $742.5 million, with up to $248.6 million set aside for compensation to businesses and individuals.

The notes break the approximate projections down this way:

• $21.8 million for programme design.
• $28.7 million for the web portal and case-management system.
• $248.6 million for compensation.
• $132.2 million for RCMP collection, validation, and supporting activities.
• $149 million for collection and destruction, including local police and contractors.
• $162.2 million for delivery and support, including payments, the ESDC contact centre, and client services.

Subtracting compensation leaves $493.9 million for the other activities. Public Safety says the categories may change with operational needs while the overall envelope stays the same.

Those amounts describe the budget's scope. Actual expenditure needs its own dated accounting, and a final cost per firearm needs the eventual collection count. Treating $493.9 million as an overrun, or labelling all of it administration, would misstate the figures.

Ottawa should make the next comparison straightforward: the original allocation, subsequent changes, commitments, and actual expenditure, over matching periods. Readers should be able to follow compensation separately from collection and other programme costs. An answer that requires reverse-engineering several departmental publications is a poor standard for public accountability.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer's June 2021 work needs its own label too. It modelled firearm compensation under different inventory, participation, and price assumptions, with estimates ranging from $47 million to $756 million. It excluded administration and other costs. That historical scenario range cannot establish today's complete bill, especially after later prohibitions expanded the programme's scope.

Owners deserve an account of the result

Public Safety presents the programme as a way to remove firearms it considers assault-style from circulation and protect communities. Its public case deserves to be measured against outcomes and costs. Collecting an item, paying a claim, and preventing a violent crime are different results, and a useful evaluation has to explain the relationship between them.

My objection to confiscating firearms from licensed owners remains. Releasing a better spreadsheet would leave that objection intact. It would give Canadians a firmer basis for assessing how much money and police time Ottawa has committed to this choice.

Holdover has previously examined the separate request for Public Safety's analysis of the programme's effect on crime. This cost-records application asks a different question, about RCMP implementation plans. Keeping the files separate makes both arguments easier to check.

The next court development worth reporting will be a scheduled hearing, a disclosure decision, or the release of the records themselves. Until then, the funding envelope should carry its proper labels, and the people paying for this programme should keep asking to see the assumptions behind it.

Sources

• Federal Court: Court files, T-1388-26, registry and recorded entries checked October 21, 2026.
• Haubrich and CTF: Notice of application, dated March 13, 2026; applicants' account and requested relief.
• CTF: Taxpayers entitled to know all costs, October 9, 2026; the organization's position.
• Public Safety: May 28 committee briefing and funding breakdown, 2026; approximate projections.
• Access to Information Act, section 69, current consolidation checked October 21, 2026.
• Privy Council Office: Policy on the security of Cabinet confidences, the purpose and scope of confidentiality.
• PBO: Cost estimate of the firearm buy-back programme, June 29, 2021; historical compensation scenarios.

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