Peter Van Loan, federal minister of public safety, says his ministry didn't approve the RCMP's decision to use an external polling company to conduct research into the national gun registry. (CBC)

The federal government has asked Canada's privacy commissioner to look into whether the RCMP should have passed on personal information from the national gun registry to a pollster.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan called the RCMP's release of information to the EKOS polling firm "offensive and inappropriate" and said it would not have been approved if the ministry had been consulted, said ministry spokesperson Chris McCluskey.

McCluskey said the RCMP decision to not consult the government was contrary to policy.

"The government is referring the matter to the privacy commissioner to determine whether law-abiding citizens' personal information was misused," he said in a statement.

Some Canadian gun owners were upset after personal details, such as names, addresses and phone numbers, from the gun registry were given to the research firm.

The RCMP had asked EKOS to conduct the poll to gauge gun owners' satisfaction with the RCMP's firearms-control program.

Police say the polling was not a violation of privacy because EKOS was working as an extension of the RCMP.

"We contracted EKOS people, security cleared them to the level that our people are, and they were conducting the research on our behalf," said Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, who heads the RCMP's firearms program, which is responsible for licensing and regulating all firearms in Canada.

Gun owners responded

Cheliak said the information obtained by EKOS will be destroyed after it is analyzed or it will be turned over to the police.

He said about 1,100 gun owners across Canada responded to the voluntary poll.

Tony Bernardo, who does legal work for the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, said members were outraged when they received calls from the polling company.

"This information is absolutely privileged and encoded," said Bernardo. "It should have never been released beyond the confines of the RCMP."

McCluskey said the minister hopes the incident persuades the other federal parties to stop blocking the government's efforts to repeal the long-gun registry.

Van Loan introduced a bill in the Senate in April to abolish the long-gun registry, which was created in 1995 by the Liberal government as part of sweeping gun-control legislation.