Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, is seen at Toronto City Hall in the summer of 2018. He is a strong proponent of the Liberal government's sweeping firearms ban. (Bernard Weil/Toronto Star)

With just over 10 weeks to a general election, two provinces have yet to sign agreements with Ottawa for millions of dollars in funding to combat guns and gangs under a program the Liberals first unveiled in the government’s 2018 budget.

Seven provinces and Yukon have signed agreements since last March for funding from $2.2 million, in Yukon’s case, to $11 million for Ontario over two years. A total of $42 million has been allotted.

But Quebec and Prince Edward Island have not reached a deal to join one of the federal government’s central initiatives from a 2015 Liberal election promise to address guns and gangs in Canadian cities.

Nunavut and Northwest Territories have also yet to agree to a funding arrangement.

Alberta reached an agreement in March 2019 that would see Ottawa allocate $29.8 million over five years to Alberta under the gangs and guns program. However, this agreement only covers the first two years of the plan, while Ottawa and Alberta are still negotiating on how this funding will be spread over the final three years.

Although the federal Liberals later added a potential ban on handguns and assault rifles, before dropping the idea and holding action on assault rifles off for an election issue, the guns and gangs strategy, with a total of $214 million available over five years, was central to Liberal gun control plans.

Demands for a ban on handguns have been revived following a rash of shootings in Toronto last weekend, which were amplified by two brutal mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, over the same period.

The long weekend Toronto shootings did not result in deaths but ended with 17 injured and a spike in the number of shooting occurrences in the city to 244 so far this year, with 19 deaths and 111 known injuries.

The other main plank fulfilling 2015 Liberal election promises was legislation to shore up laws for non-restricted rifles and shotguns. The legislation passed through Parliament and received Royal Assent on June 21, but its main elements, including restoration of mandatory licence validation and retailer records, are yet to take effect through cabinet orders.

The office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minister for border security and organized crime reduction, Toronto Liberal MP Bill Blair, a former chief of the Toronto Police Service, confirmed Wednesday that Quebec and Alberta, as well as Prince Edward Island and the two territories, have not yet signed on for the guns and gang funding.

Blair’s office noted the government had budgeted a total of $327 million, including the $214 million for provincial and territorial funding, along with a commitment of $86 million for the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency to interdict smuggled weapons at the U.S. border and search them out in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s chief communications aide, Scott Bardsley, had referred questions to Blair’s staff.

Other than an announcement last March of $11.9 million in funding over five years for Saskatchewan for “preventing, disrupting and combating gun and gang violence,” Goodale, who introduced the long-gun bill in Parliament, has ceded the announcements and arrangements on the guns and gangs project to Blair.

On condition the statement be attributed to Blair’s office, an email from one of his staff suggested Quebec or Alberta, or both, are resisting whatever amounts or terms the federal government is offering under the guns and gangs program.

“We continue to engage with our provincial and territorial counterparts about these agreements, and some have been more receptive than others,” the email stated.

New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the latest provinces to reach agreements with the federal government. Blair announced $2.7 million in funding over five years for New Brunswick on Aug. 1, in Fredericton, and $1.8 million in funding over five years for Newfoundland and Labrador at a ceremony in Conception Bay on Aug. 2.

Prior to that, Blair’s latest funding announcements had been on April 26, with a $2.3-million announcement in Manitoba, and on April 24, with $4.7 million in funding for Nova Scotia over five years. Blair began his funding announcements on March 4, in Victoria, B.C., with $5.3 million over two years for British Columbia for initiatives aimed at “preventing and intervening in local gang activity in specific communities struggling with crime.” The program was to include community consultation, targeted training and development of Indigenous gun and gang violence prevention tools.

*This story and headline has been corrected to note that Alberta had reached an agreement on the first two years of funding.