Feds announce new border plan amid threats from president-elect

The federal government has set out a five-pillar approach to boosting border security, although it does not include details of where and how the $1.3 billion funding package earmarked in the autumn economic statement will be allocated.

The announcement comes after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports unless Canada halts the flow of illegal drugs and migrants across the shared border.

“It’s an important step to show Canadians and our American partners that we share their concerns about border security and border integrity,” said Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc – who also temporarily holds the public safety portfolio until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffles his portfolio. cabinet – when he is asked if he thinks the new measures will be enough to satisfy Trump.

“We have taken note of President(-elect) Trump’s comments,” LeBlanc also said, adding that he has had “encouraging” conversations with Trump’s incoming team and is “optimistic.”

The federal government has set out a five-pillar approach to boosting border security, although it does not include details of where and how the $1.3 billion funding package earmarked in the autumn economic statement will be allocated.

The announcement comes after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports unless Canada halts the flow of illegal drugs and migrants across the shared border.

“It’s an important step to show Canadians and our American partners that we share their concerns about border security and border integrity,” said Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc – who also temporarily holds the public safety portfolio until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffles his portfolio. cabinet – when he is asked if he thinks the new measures will be enough to satisfy Trump.

“We have taken note of President(-elect) Trump’s comments,” LeBlanc also said, adding that he has had “encouraging” conversations with Trump’s incoming team and is “optimistic.”

However, he would not say whether he has received assurances from the incoming administration that Canada can escape the tariffs, regardless of what the federal government puts on the table.

LeBlanc announced the new border measures along with Immigration Minister Marc Miller, International Trade Minister Mary Ng and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks on Tuesday.

In Monday’s fall economic statement, the federal government earmarked a $1.3 billion border security package over six years, with money rolling out to several agencies and organizations, including the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP, without disclosing the details of the plan.

LeBlanc, meanwhile, has insisted that plans to strengthen the border have been in the works for months and are not an attempt to appease Trump to avoid the tariffs.

The five pillars of the new plan include: detecting and disrupting the fentanyl trade, new law enforcement tools, improving operational coordination, increasing information sharing, and minimizing unnecessary border volumes.

Within these, the federal government is proposing measures such as new artificial intelligence and image processing tools to help detect illegal drugs and deploy new dog teams.

Plans for a new aerial task force – comprising helicopters, drones and surveillance towers – have also been outlined, promising 24/7 surveillance between ports of entry, plus expanding the intelligence-gathering capacity of certain agencies and measures to target money laundering.

The federal government also plans to streamline information sharing between Canada and the United States, as well as between different levels of government with law enforcement.

LeBlanc also said there will be additional human resources at the border, with the goal of recruiting about 100-150 people — between the RCMP and CBSA — fairly quickly.

The union representing frontline customs and immigration officers at the CBSA, meanwhile, has raised concerns about understaffing, saying it would need between 2,000 and 3,000 additional officers to effectively do their jobs.

LeBlanc has denied that, saying earlier this month that senior staff running the CBSA have a different position.

Canada’s prime ministers have also weighed in on the issue.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford – who chairs the Council of Premiers of the Federation of Canada – has said provincial and territorial leaders are united in their belief that securing the border and increasing defense spending are the two ways to “make a deal with the United States “

“It’s been very clear that all prime ministers think we should hit our two percent (of GDP on defense spending) when it comes to NATO. So we’re all in agreement,” Ford said earlier this month. “We’re all in agreement on , that we have to tighten the borders.”

However, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has laid out a number of border security measures, including $29 million to create a team of specially trained sheriffs tasked with patrolling the Alberta-US border.

Quebec Premier François Legault, whose province’s border sees the highest number of illegal crossings across the country, spoke with Trump in Paris earlier this month during the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Legault later said Trump told him “very clearly that we can avoid these tariffs if we do what needs to be done with the borders.”

The National Police Federation welcomed the news of additional funding in a statement on Tuesday, although the exact details of the plan are still unknown.

“The National Police Federation has long advocated for increased funding for the RCMP’s federal policing program, which includes border security, and we welcome today’s pledge of such investment,” NPF President and CEO Brian Sauvé wrote in the statement.

Federal Conservatives, meanwhile, say the Liberals should have presented a border plan sooner, adding that with Trump set to return to the Oval Office in just 40 days, the government “still hasn’t presented a Canada First plan for to save Canadian jobs and secure our border.”

While the House of Commons adjourned on Tuesday, the Conservatives are pushing for a parliamentary committee to hold hearings during the recess seeking testimony from certain ministers, border and law enforcement, Canada’s ambassador to the United States and other officials.

But conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, when asked at a news conference Tuesday how much he would spend on the border — whether more or less than the $1.3 billion the Liberals are allocating — would not say.

“We shouldn’t judge a program based on how expensive we can make it,” Poilievre said. “We should assess it based on what it can do: how many helicopters, how many drones, how many boots on the ground?”

“That is the question I will ask when I am prime minister,” he added. “And how do we deliver it at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers?”

Poilievre did not elaborate specifically on what human and equipment resources he would commit to the border.

With files from CTV News’ Judy Trinh, Rachel Aiello and Stephanie Ha