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OTTAWA — The Conservative government is ending a seven-year waiver on gun licence renewal fees next month in an effort to collect about $18 million annually from firearms owners.

New changes to the firearms regulations were quietly posted in the Canada Gazette on the weekend that restore the $60 licence fee for non-restricted weapons.

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The Conservatives brought in a two-year waiver on the fees in May 2006 and had extended it every year until now.

“The government will not renew the current fee waiver in the current climate of fiscal restraint,” said the Canada Gazette post, dated April 13.

Two other measures that the government says are designed to encourage compliance with firearms regulations will be extended by one year, however.

Gun owners who let their possession-only licences expire have been allowed to re-apply since 2008 without having to pay to go through a firearms safety course, as the regulations require. That break continues to May 2014.