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Experts estimate industry losses at more than $900 million

MAY 02, 2020, PETERBOROUGH, ON – The Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA) is calling on the Government of Canada to compensate small business owners directly affected by Friday’s sudden ban on sporting arms models in Canada.

The CSAAA has repeatedly told the Minister of Public Safety that business owners in the sporting arms category in Canada would require 12-18 months to prepare the domestic supply chain for any changes to firearms regulations. This is the amount of time that would be needed to ensure small business owners don’t get stuck with unsalable inventory and suffer insurmountable businesses losses.

Roughly 90% of sporting arms products are imported into Canada, the bulk from the U.S. and because of the significant regulations around the importing process, the Canadian supply chain operates with long lead times.

Friday’s unexpected change to the regulations with no prior notice to industry, means Canadian distributors, wholesalers and retailers are left with $ millions in unsellable inventory.

Industry is currently working on the value of the supply chain in Canada and is expecting the Government to compensate businesses for their losses. A recent study completed by the Conference Board of Canada put the value of the Sport Shooting market (most of the now banned firearms were used for sport shooting) at $2.6 billion. Industry experts estimate about 35-40% of sport shooting is based on the now-prohibited class of semi-automatic rifles. That would put the economic loss to businesses at $910 million – $1.04 billion.

Given that U.S. export laws do not allow firearms exported to Canada to be re-exported out of the country, it’s not clear if any of the unsellable products can be “returned.” Public Safety and Global Affairs staff that briefed industry representatives on Friday, said they had not negotiated with the U.S. in advance to allow for the re-export of unsold product despite referencing language in the OIC that Canada would allow for exportation.

“Our small business owners cannot sustain these losses,” said Alison de Groot, Managing Director of the CSAAA. “And they can’t wait until some time in 2022 to get paid. We fully expect the Government to compensate our business owners for their losses. We were never given the opportunity to come into compliance before the regulation was implemented.”

Sport Shooting in Canada

• 4 million Canadians participate in sport shooting
• consumer spending on sport shooting totaled $2.6 billion in 2018
• sport shooting generated a $1.8 billion contribution to Canada’s GDP in 2018
• sport shooting supported 14,000 jobs and generated $868 million in labour income in 2018

Source: Conference Board of Canada, Economic Footprint of Hunting, Fishing, Trapping & Sport Shooting 2019

For more information, contact:

Alison de Groot, Managing Director

Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA)

705-875-2302

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