The federal government will once again offer a one-year amnesty to long gun owners who have yet to register their firearms with the federal gun registry, Treasury Board president Vic Toews said Friday.

Speaking in Winnipeg, Toews said the Conservatives still intend to do away with the registry, which was brought in by a previous Liberal government and has been relentlessly lampooned by the Tories as a bloated bureaucratic boondoggle.

The second extension, Toews said, will "encourage compliance and reduce the administrative burden" on lawful gun owners as they work to comply with the registry.

"We are preventing the pointless criminalization of non-restricted gun owners," Toews said Friday.

The government is also waiving fees for licence renewals for another year, as well as allowing eligible holders of expired licences to apply for a new one within a year.

The amnesty was first introduced by the Conservatives in 2006 and was extended in 2008.

Last month, the Conservative government introduced a bill in the Liberal-dominated Senate to abolish the long gun registry — an unusual move as 98 per cent of bills are presented in the House of Commons.

Any move to abolish the registry would require the support of opposition parties in the current minority Parliament. All three opposition parties have said they support the registry remaining in place.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's successive minority governments have never brought a bill to abolish the registry to a Commons vote. Instead, the government has reduced the registry's budget along with introducing fee waivers and amnesties.

The Tories have argued the costly registry penalizes law-abiding citizens, while doing little to curb crime.

But the registry's proponents say it helps police crack down on crime and have accused the Conservatives of trying to dismantle gun control in Canada

In a release on Friday, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said the amnesty actually serves to enhance public safety because the last extension encouraged an increase of gun owners registering as licensed firearms owners.

With files from The Canadian Press