Manitoba border patrols welcome new resources as they gear up for potential effects of Trump presidency
Ottawa's $1.3B border strategy plan includes money for drones, Black Hawk helicopters, drug-detection tech
Officers in Manitoba tasked with protecting the Canadian border say they're eager for more resources, as the country braces for what Donald Trump's presidency could mean for the flow of goods and people across the 49th parallel.
Earlier this week, the federal government unveiled details on a $1.3-billion border security plan first announced in its fall economic statement.
Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said Canada 60 new drones are already patrolling the world's longest international border, with two leased Black Hawk helicopters that were set to start surveillance on Friday.
"We're doing a great job of defending the border as it is," said RCMP Sgt. Chris Browne on a gravel path near Emerson, Man., just north of the border with North Dakota.
"But there are gaps, and we need to close those gaps."
Last November, Browne — who is the RCMP's program manager for police dog services in Manitoba — and his canine unit partner, Mack, responded to a call about asylum seekers who'd walked across to Manitoba. It felt like –30 C with the wind chill, he said.
"The first five [people] that we had encountered were frozen, and they were in various states of hypothermia," Browne said.
"We found the sixth person, and that person had already gone to sleep. So now it's battle stations to make sure that we get that person out as fast as we can. We were able to carry him out and get him to safety."
It was near Emerson that a family of four from India — Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son, Dharmik — froze to death in 2022, as they attempted to cross from Canada into Minnesota.
Sgt. Lance Goldau, who heads up the Manitoba RCMP's Integrated Border Enforcement Team, said the flow of migrants has stayed about the same in recent years, but that police must always prepare for what a new U.S. administration could mean for those numbers.
"We've discussed options with CBSA [the Canada Border Services Agency], with our U.S. partners. We have a plan in place, and we'll just have to wait to see," he said. "We are ready for whatever changes may come."
The number of illegal crossings to Canada reached unusually high levels during the first Trump administration. Experts have warned that the U.S. president-elect's mass deportation plans may lead to yet another surge.
Tariff threat
Ottawa's border security announcement came as Trump continues to threaten a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, unless both countries crack down on illegal migration and drug smuggling.
Ottawa said it's also set some of the money aside for new technologies at Canada's ports of entry, which are run by the Canada Border Security Agency.
"Part of the border plan is some additional detection technology, potentially some canine, some chemical analysis devices that are able to allow us to detect some precursor chemicals," said CBSA chief of operations Steven Wolski.
He also said the border has become safe and more efficient since changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement, a Canada-U.S. pact that came into force in 2004 and stipulates that asylum seekers must make their claims in the first safe country they reach.
Under changes made in 2023, the agreement now applies across the entire Canada-United States border, instead of only at official entry points — meaning migrants can no longer make asylum claims if they cross between those official ports of entry.
"We have received increased support for more removals of people who don't belong in Canada and need to be removed from Canada," said Jeryn Peters, the border services agency's director for the Prairie region.
"Our priority has always been to work with our partners and to use a risk-based approach to facilitate the free flow of people and goods … while using that risk-based approach to identify those people and goods that we want to keep out."
For Simon Resch, who operates a duty-free shop near the Emerson border crossing — one of the country's busiest ports of entry — that free flow of traffic has a direct impact on his bottom line.
"Unfortunately, we're now in a situation where we're under the gun because of the pressure from the incoming U.S. administration," he said.
Tariffs "would dry up some customers for us, for sure."
The federal government says it's also planning to add more officers at the border, including 80 new canine units.
"More is better than less," the RCMP's Browne said. "The Mounties always find a way to get it done. But … if everybody had more, we could do more."
With files from Karen Pauls