OTTAWA — RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says he has outlined the number of officers needed to increase security at the Canada-U.S. Border to Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who opposition parties pressed on Tuesday to detail the Liberals’ plan.
Speaking to reporters, Duheme said he has presented the government with a plan when it comes to bolstering the country’s border security.
“Numbers have been discussed with the minister,” Duheme said, after appearing before the parliamentary committee on public safety, along with heads of other security agencies.
He declined to provide specifics on what the RCMP has asked for, but said the national force has contingency plans in place for any potential surges and has discussed what resources would be needed from the government.
Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip last Friday to dine with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and several of his cabinet picks for the White House, LeBlanc, who was also in attendance, has pledged that the federal government will provide additional resources in the form of helicopters and drones to the RCMP to increase border security.
“You can appreciate that if we’re asking for new technology, we need the resource to operate that technology,” Duheme told reporters.
“There’s an increase in uniform presence that we want, but there’s also that increase on people that can operate the technology that we’re going to get.”
The government will be making an announcement in due course, according to LeBlanc.
The minister is “well in tune of some of the challenges and they’re being addressed,” Duheme said. “I’m looking forward to the investment.”
The RCMP is responsible for policing the border between official entry points, while the Canada Border Services Agency is in charge of protecting official ports of entry.
In the light of the renewed attention on border security, the union representing border services officers has called on LeBlanc to reconsider that divide, saying it was time to expand the agency’s mandate.
Doing so would require rescinding a 1932 order that made the RCMP responsible for policing between points of entry, where individuals illegally cross the border.
“(Canada Border Service Agency) officers are already trained with the border in mind and have a keen understanding of relevant laws and regulations,” Customs and Immigration Union President Mark Weber, wrote in a letter to LeBlanc.
“They are also already physically present at areas of importance.”
Weber also told the National Post in an interview the situation is frustrating for members because if officers see someone crossing the border near a port “we have to call the RCMP.”
Erin O’Gorman, president of the Canada Border Services Agency, told Tuesday’s parliamentary committee that specific issue had not before been brought to her attention.
She told members of Parliament the agency often discusses how best to move resources to deal with extra pressure. Duheme added the RCMP also is prepared to redeploy resources to deal with any potential surges, citing how it pulled some officers from Montreal to respond to the number of people crossing into Canada through Quebec’s Roxham Road, which has since been closed.
To the question of expanding the agency’s mandate, O’Gorman said she was “open to anything that makes us more effective at the border.”
Giving it more of the border to patrol is ultimately up to Parliament, she added.
LeBlanc told reporters on Monday that he too is open to the idea, but warned that making any kind of legislative change would need to be done through the House of Commons, when the Liberals are currently focused on coming up with a more urgent response to border security concerns.
Duheme said on Tuesday he would be open to discussing the idea, but that it would be part of a longer term plan.
When it comes to securing the border, “we have to do what’s right,” he said.
“I think we have to explore different ways.”
National Post
[email protected]
Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.