Canada's Border Boost: Major Security, Immigration Funds

Canada is investing $1.3 billion to bolster security at the border and strengthen the immigration system, all while keeping Canadians safe. This includes $667.5M for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, $355.4M for the Canada Border Services Agency, $180M over 6 years for the Communications Security Establishment, $77.7M for Health Canada, and $20M over five years for Public Safety Canada.

• Adding new and expanded detection capacity to better detect illegal drugs and other threats such as guns and gun parts at border entries, which will also contribute to cutting cargo container processing time.
• Creating a new Canadian Drug Profiling Centre to support 2,000 investigations a year and expand capacity at regional labs. CBSA will deploy new chemical detection tools at high-risk ports of entry.
• Deploying new canine teams to intercept illegal drugs.
• Accelerating the regulatory process for banning precursor chemicals so that border and law enforcement can take swift action to prevent their illegal importation and use.
• Launching a new Chemical Precursor Risk Management Unit to increase oversight over precursor chemicals and monitor emerging illegal drug trends, enhance monitoring and surveillance, and enable timely law enforcement action.
• Expanding powers to strengthen law enforcement to act against illegal drugs and precursors under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Introducing Significant New Tools for Law Enforcement

• Investing in new crewed and non-crewed (drones) air-based intelligence and surveillance platforms to support live operational response and monitoring of border events and patterns. This will be complimented by mobile surveillance towers, supporting artificial intelligence (AI) tools and counter-drone technology intended to provide more comprehensive surveillance between ports of entry.
• Develop a better picture of illegal drug supply chains by expanding capacity for intelligence collection by the RCMP and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), to target transnational organized crime and fentanyl trafficking more effectively.
• Bring in a legislative requirement to expressly obligate port owners and operators to provide CBSA, free of charge, with the space and facilities it needs to conduct export inspections, just as they do for imports.
• Punish serious criminal non-compliance of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act by: increasing limits for all criminal fines by 10 times and all undefined prison terms to up to 1 year; and introducing a new offence for the provision of false information to FINTRAC.
• Strengthen the anti-money laundering/anti-terrorist financing framework, advance the global fight on financial crime, and support a positive upcoming Mutual Evaluation of Canada by the Financial Action Task Force by: requiring reporting entities, not already registered, to enroll with FINTRAC; enabling FINTRAC disclosures to the Office of the Commission of Canada Elections to detect and deter illicit financing and foreign interference in Canadian elections; and making technical amendments.

Improving Operational Coordination

• Creating regional hubs to coordinate national, regional, and local law enforcement activities against organized crime and illegal drugs.
• Propose to the United States the creation of a new North American Joint Strike Force to target transnational organized crime, including operational surges, dedicated synthetic drug units, expanded Combined Forces Special Enforcement Units, Binational Integrated Border Enforcement Teams, and new technical operations capacity and infrastructure.

Expanding Information Sharing

• Enhancing and expanding information and intelligence sharing arrangements between federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous authorities to manage the border, with a focus on fentanyl, human smuggling and organized crime.
• Enhancing vetting with the United States of all eTA (Electronic Travel Authorization) applicants to screen for high-risk individuals.
• Improving disclosure to the United States through the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the High-Risk Child Sex Offender Database Act to ensure border officials have access to information on high-risk individuals who are attempting to travel.

Minimizing unnecessary border volumes

Steps taken to date:

• Introduced an Additional Protocol to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) to extend the application of the STCA to the entire Canada-U.S. land border, including internal waterways. The number of asylum claims from people crossing illegally has dropped from an average of 165 per day in March 2023 to 12 per day since then.
• Cancelled the visitor-to-worker public policy, which has been used by nefarious actors to mislead and mistreat foreign nationals.
• Implemented a partial visa requirement for Mexican nationals in February 2024 to reduce the high number of asylum claims, most of which were refused, withdrawn or abandoned. This change has significantly reduced claims from Mexican citizens at airports across the country.
• Put in place measures to manage the volume of temporary resident arrivals and uphold the integrity of our immigration system, including:

1. reforming the International Student Program by ending post-graduation work permit 'flagpoling',
2. introducing new measures to address fraud in Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program,
3. tightening eligibility requirements for temporary foreign workers, post-graduation work permits, and spouses of international students work permits

Proposed measures:

• Improve the rate of removals of inadmissible people from Canada, and reduce existing immigration enforcement inventories.
• Introduce new legislation to strengthen authorities to:

1. cancel, change or suspend immigration documents, including visas, or
2. cancel or suspend applications in our inventory, or
3. pause the acceptance of new applications.

• This would be done for groups of immigration documents or applications when determined to be in the public interest, or on an individual case-by-case basis.
• These authorities would be used when warranted to prevent people outside of Canada who may pose a risk from entering the country, in turn leading to a decrease in irregular southbound migration.

• As this change takes effect, temporary residents would need to apply for all necessary immigration services online, removing the option to apply at a port of entry. To reduce border congestion and allow officers to focus on security, we will stop processing most immigration applications at ports of entry from flagpolers.

Initiatives outlined in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement (FES)

Protecting the Integrity of Canada's Visa System

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to secure and extend legislative authorities to cancel, suspend, or vary immigration documents for reasons deemed in the public interest.

Strengthening Information Disclosures from Sex Offender Registries

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to amend the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to enhance the ability of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to share information collected under the Act with domestic and international partners.

Cracking Down on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to amend the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) to strengthen Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing (AML/ATF) framework by introducing universal enrollment for reporting entities, permitting disclosures to the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, as well as making technical amendments.

Stronger Penalties for Financial Crimes

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to amend the PCMLTFA, with small, targeted and consequential amendments to regulations under the PCMLTFA, to strengthen AML/ATF penalties and support compliance with PCMLTFA requirements.

Amendments to the Customs Act

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to amend the Customs Act to compel carriers and sufferance warehouse operators to grant access to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to examine goods destined for export, as well as obligate owners and operators to provide adequate facilities for these officers to carry out the CBSA's mandate.

Asylum Integrity and Processing

• In FES 2024, the government proposes to introduce legislative amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that would uphold the integrity and fairness of the asylum system, including by streamlining the intake, processing, and adjudication of claims.