RCMP will collect firearms in the Yukon under the federal gun buyback program, says a spokesperson for the police force, but it remains unclear precisely who will do the collecting.

In an email, Andrew DiRienzo, a spokesperson for RCMP national headquarters, said the initiative will be funded separately from contract policing in order to “minimize impacts on other police priorities.”

Yukon Premier Currie Dixon recently told reporters the federal government’s collection plan remains unclear. The feds had offered compensation or reimbursement to individuals for guns classified as banned under the Criminal Code that had been declared prior to March 31.

The amnesty period ends Oct. 30.

“[The federal government has] never said whether they intend to employ police forces or paramilitary forces of any kind to confiscate rifles,” Dixon said.

A spokesperson for the federal public safety minister’s office said by email that mobile collection units will be dispatched across the country to collect firearms “where needed.”

Public Safety spokesperson Simon Lafortune did not say who will comprise these units. He said the decision by local police forces not to collect guns under the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program won’t stop the government from collecting firearms through the mobile units.

Lafortune said the government will hold a review of weapon classifications, overseen by a new, expanded advisory group, to inform potential future changes.

Chuck Shewen is president of the Yukon Fish and Game Association. He’s concerned the list of prohibited guns contains some “legitimate firearms,” including ones hunters in the territory regularly use.

The federal list contains close to 2,600 firearms and components. Shewen said he is struggling to advise members, who may be trying to sort through the long list, to identify illegal guns.

“Everyone needs to realize that this legislation right now is barrelling down the road in an unworkable format,” he said. “We are heading … to a mass civil non-compliance situation because of this absolute poorly put together legislation.”

Yukon Justice Minister Laura Lang said northerners have been left out of talks on the program and its effectiveness.

Lang and justice ministers from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories wrote to federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree April 2 to express their discontent.

Lang has also called for a review of the firearms list as well as an extension of the amnesty period and further consultation with northerners.

“It is a program that is aimed to provide public safety to urban centres that address criminal and gang-related activity,” she said.

“But it neglects to actually use knowledge and evidence from Northerners on how this actually affects our way of living, including traditional hunting and our safety on the land, and just part of what it is that we identify as northerners.”

Yukon Party MLAs and the sole Liberal member in the legislature voted together in favour of a government backbench motion calling for a carve-out that exempts the three territories from the program and related prohibitions.

After an NDP amendment to the motion was defeated, the six Yukon NDP MLAs walked out en masse ahead of the non-binding vote on the main motion. It was a move that Dixon said he had never seen during his time in territorial politics.

While the Yukon government has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the program, Official Opposition Leader Kate White said the reality is that there’s no role for the Yukon government when it comes to administering the federal program.

White called the motion a form of “virtue signalling.”

She agreed that the northern perspective has been excluded to date.

“But we also need to recognize that gun violence in Canada is real,” White said. “It doesn’t just happen in southern places. It also happens in the North.”