97,,,You may well be corret on the tax issue...I am only telling you what I was told by Canadians when I was hunting Caribou in Quebec...we were talking guns and the one man said he used a 12 ga. with slugs because he could not afford a rifle due to high cost...the tax thing is what he said was the cause...Maybe it was only that province, I do not know, also this was 15 years or more a go, and could have changed...If I had miss information..sorry...As for Canadian ammo I did buy some #2 magnum shells made in Canada...still have some...only shot varmits with them, but they did ok...and were not expensive..10.00 I think...