Thursday’s announcement of a ban on 324 more unique makes and models, and their variants, comes on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the mass shooting that killed 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique.

“The best thing we can do to honour the memories of those we lost in mass shootings is to act on gun control and to restrict access to the very weapons used to commit these horrible crimes,” LeBlanc told reporters. “Our goal is to ensure that no community, no family is devastated by mass shootings in Canada again.”

The move also comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government looks to shore up support for an ambitious gun-control agenda that was a staple in several of its election platforms but has since faced several hurdles and stringent opposition from Conservatives and gun owners.

Following the massacre of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020, Ottawa put in place a sweeping ban of more than 1,500 assault-style weapons with a buyback program. It added a national handgun sales freeze in 2022 alongside several other measures the government says make up the strongest gun control laws in Canada’s history.

That buyback program is now set to begin after several delays raised concerns about whether it would come into effect. Banned guns have been required to be securely stored for several years as the government prepared to launch the buyback program.

Although the Trudeau government insists the program is on track to be complete by fall 2025 before the next scheduled election, an unstable minority Parliament that could result in an earlier election and several implementation delays have left gun-control advocates anxious. The Conservatives, who lead all major polls, have framed Trudeau’s policies as an attack on “licensed and law-abiding hunters and sport shooters.”

Government officials on Thursday said the first phase of the program for businesses is now underway. The second phase for individual gun owners is expected to start in 2025 — but questions remain over how it will be implemented as Canada Post refuses to participate and police say they don’t have the resources to handle it.

Defence Minister Bill Blair said at the announcement his department will work with participants in the buyback program to donate some of the prohibited weapons to Ukraine, as the Liberals on Thursday argued the guns being banned belonged on battlefields, not in Canadian communities.

Thursday’s move also addresses the concerns of gun-control advocates, who had contended hundreds of gun models were missed by the ban, and argued the program was full of loopholes. Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, had warned in recent months that the program would lose all its meaning without more comprehensive restrictions.

Provost was at the announcement in Ottawa on Thursday and said the move gives her hope that “what remains to be done will be done.”

“The fact that we are gathered here today with a much more completed list, and that we are promised in front of all of you on this date, that the list of prohibited equipment will be completed, gives me hope,” she said. “Even if this program isn’t perfect, I believe it’s good enough.”

LeBlanc said more guns should be added to the banned list as an expert panel continues to examine what remains on the market.

Police across the country and some experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Trudeau government’s gun control agenda, arguing it was illegal guns coming from the U.S. that were most often used by criminals and pushing for stricter border control.

The Conservatives raised that point Thursday, but also blamed what they called “reckless policies” from the Liberal government for rising gun violence.

“Trudeau’s latest underhanded attack against lawful Canadians and his continued blind eye to actual gun criminals is an insult to the thousands of victims of gun crime who continue to be terrorized and lose their lives as a result of Trudeau’s catch-and-release policies,” Raquel Dancho, the party’s public safety critic, said in a statement.

LeBlanc told reporters that Trudeau brought up the issue of guns at the border with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump when they met last Friday in Florida. He suggested new measures would come to strengthen the border.

Thursday’s announcement also said measures previously passed that address domestic gun violence will come into force early in the new year.

Last week, a coalition of women’s groups called on the government to urgently enact several measures already passed that would restrict firearms access to people who commit domestic violence.

“Time is of the essence,” said Suzanne Zaccour, the director of legal affairs at the National Association of Women and the Law. “Everyday that passes, women’s lives are put at risk.”