In early June , I don't know the process the Alberta CFO was doing for individual to individual transfers myself, but vendor to individual transfers were very quick.
Ordered two handguns from Prophet River on June 01 and they were approved and mailed to me within a week by June 06.
The Alberta CFO was working OT and going above & beyond doing the transfers internally without having to go through the federal office.
They stopped doing that a number of weeks ago because they couldn't sustain the OT costs I assume, and now the transfer approvals are going through the federal office in queue with all the other provinces, hence having to wait weeks now.
Like all government agencies, internal budget restrictions hamper providing people with proper services even if they want to do better.
Ordered another handgun from Bulls Eye North Aug. 06, who knows when that will show up now.
Teri Bryant, Alberta chief firearms officer July 21:
To help address the federal backlog and reduce wait times for Albertans, the province’s firearms office reworked its processes to handle transfer applications normally dealt with by the federal program. However, given current staffing levels, the Alberta Chief Firearms Office can only perform this additional work on an intermittent basis without negatively affecting its core business.
“I can promise Albertans that everyone in my office is doing all they can to work diligently and expeditiously through the overwhelming increase in inquiries and applications that have been coming in. But there is only so much we can do without the full cooperation and preparedness of our federal counterparts.”