The Government of Canada continues to take concrete action to strengthen border security, collaborating closely with provincial, territorial and U.S. partners to keep communities on both sides of the border safe.
Today, the Honourable David McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety, announced the launch of a series of Government of Canada-led exercises with provincial and territorial governments designed to further strengthen our ability to take action and respond to events at the border. The first exercise was held today with the government of Ontario.
As part of a Team Canada approach, senior officials from federal organizations responsible for border security, including the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Public Safety Canada (PS), and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), met with their Ontario counterparts to discuss how to best prepare for and respond to potential situations that might arise on either side of the Canada-U.S. border.
The goal of these exercises is to assess preparedness, test coordination, determine adequacy of resources and ensure effective inter-agency communication and federal-provincial-territorial coordination for whatever scenarios may come our way. These collaborative exercises with provinces and territories are strengthening our posture and refining and enhancing the systems in place to stay ahead of evolving challenges to ensure the border remains secure.
These exercises build on Canada's Border Plan, a $1.3 billion investment to support a robust, enforcement-focused posture at the border that will include the deployment of helicopters, drones, mobile surveillance towers, and officers with new canine teams.
The CBSA and the RCMP play a crucial role protecting our communities by preventing illegal goods and inadmissible people from entering Canada. They are in constant operational contact with their U.S. partners and have contingency plans in place while procuring additional technology, equipment and surveillance means to multiply the existing resources at the border.
