Photo credit: Victoria News
Canada is considering supplying the RCMP and border agency with more resources, including drones, helicopters, and personnel, in case of a “surge” at the border, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday. This is in response to Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports into the US.
Burnabynow reports that the American president-elect has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico unless the countries take action to stem the flow of migrants and illegal drugs crossing the border.
LeBlanc said his office has been working with finance officials, the RCMP, and the Canada Border Services Agency to determine what is needed and feasible. He added that Canada shares many of the same concerns as the Americans regarding illegal migration and drugs and other contraband making its way across the border.
He revealed that Canadian agencies are working collaboratively with their American counterparts.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller was asked on Tuesday about deploying more officers to oversee the New York-Vermont border area, which sees the highest rates of illegal crossings from Canada into the United States.
He replied that there is no comparison to the flow of migrants entering the US from Mexico.
“It’s the equivalent on a yearly basis with a significant weekend at the Mexican border. At the same time, it’s not something I want to not take seriously, because it is serious,” Miller said.
“We have a job to not make our problems the Americans’ problems and they have a job not to make their problems ours.”
Chief border patrol agent Robert Garcia said last month that agents in the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont’s border with Quebec, apprehended over 19,000 people from 97 countries in the last year – more than 17 years combined.
US Customs Border and Protection also revealed it seized nearly 5,000 kilograms of illegal drugs at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024. That included 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl.
Comparatively, border agents seized nearly 125,000 kilograms of narcotics at the border with Mexico, including almost 10,000 kilograms of fentanyl.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, two milligrams of fentanyl is a potentially fatal dose.
Cannabis is by far the most commonly seized drug coming from Canada, accounting for almost 60 per cent of total seizures. From Mexico, it’s methamphetamine, accounting for about 57 per cent of seizures at the southern border.
However, drug seizures coming from Canada to the US are down significantly from the prior two years, according to border patrol data: about 25,000 kilograms of narcotics were seized between October 2022 and September 2023, down from about 27,000 kilograms in the year before
