TORONTO, Canada – The government of Canada continues to take concrete action to strengthen border security, collaborating closely with provincial, territorial and US partners to keep communities on both sides of the border safe.
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 January 3, 2025, with the government of Ontario.
“Strengthening border security requires all of us to take a Team Canada approach – and this series of exercises with our provincial and territorial partners seek to do just that. Through their professionalism and dedication, Canada’s law enforcement agencies are prepared to respond to any scenario at our border,” said McGuinty, minister of public safety.
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-US border.
“The Canada Border Services Agency benefits from collaboration in maintaining border operations and security. We have already begun to implement changes to increase our capacity and initiated work to strengthen our collaboration with federal and provincial partners in support of Canada’s Border Plan. We have increased our monitoring and reporting activities as well as practiced our contingency plans. With our American partners, building on the recent decision to align hours of service with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at more than 30 locations, last week flagpoling was ended eliminating a major irritant to both countries and this week we announced a planned land border preclearance project in the United States.” ~ Ted Gallivan, executive vice-president, Canada Border Services Agency.
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 US partners and have contingency plans in place while procuring additional technology, equipment and surveillance means to multiply the existing resources at the border.
Meanwhile, the CBSA announced it is introducing a new measure to reduce the cost burden of removing inadmissible people from the country by increasing the fees that individuals will have to pay if they want to return to Canada.
Individuals being removed from Canada are required to pay for their own travel costs. In situations where the inadmissible person is unable or unwilling to pay, the CBSA covers the cost to ensure that they are removed in a timely manner. Costs are recovered by the government of Canada when an individual who was removed at the government’s expense seeks to return to Canada.
“Under the new cost recovery framework, the fees will be adjusted from approximately $1,500 previously to just over $12,800 for escorted removals and just over $3,800 for unescorted removals, regardless of destination. This change establishes a cost recovery framework that is more in line with the current costs of removals and encourages voluntary compliance with removal orders,” says CBSA updates cost recovery for removing inadmissible individuals.
CBSA has a legal obligation to remove all foreign nationals that are inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). From January 1 to October 31, 2024, the CBSA removed over 14,000 inadmissible foreign nationals.
