Canada may add more resources at the U.S. border after tariff threats: minister

Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada is considering a number of measures at the American border, including additional resources. 

This comes after president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports unless action is taken to stem the flow of both migrants and illegal drugs crossing the border.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, its officers recorded nearly 200,000 encounters at the northern border in the fiscal year that ended in September. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has made a set of recommendations to the Liberal government on how it should respond to U-S president-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods. In a news conference today, Poilievre called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the planned increase to the federal carbon price and all planned tax increases, arguing those policies would hurt Canada's economy on top of potential tariffs.

We need a Canada First Plan for our economy & security.

I have asked the Speaker of the House for an Emergency Debate on the threat of U.S. tariffs on Canada.

Bring it home. pic.twitter.com/xL11TFimaQ

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) November 26, 2024

The Conservative leader also says Canada needs to crack down harder on drugs as Trump complains about fentanyl being smuggled in the U-S from Canada.

That figure includes apprehensions, people who are deemed inadmissible and those who are expelled from the U.S.

Chief border patrol agent Robert Garcia recently said agents in the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont's border with Quebec, apprehended more than 19,000 people from 97 countries in the last year — more than the last 17 years combined. 

The U.S. border agency says it also seized more than 11,000 pounds of drugs at the Canadian border in the last year, including 43 pounds of fentanyl.

Earlier this month, the RCMP announced two significant operations with ties to Mexican drug cartels. 

This includes the arrest of three men in Surrey, B.C., in a drug bust and a joint operation with the FBI that saw nine Canadians arrested from Ontario to Mexico.