Alberta Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis, left, says the Interdiction Patrol Team will establish roadside stops targeting commercial vehicles – heading to and from the province’s six land border crossings – for additional inspections.Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press
Alberta is creating its own international border patrol team, making good on Premier Danielle Smith’s promise to use the powers of provincial law enforcement to boost border security in the wake of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat.
The Interdiction Patrol Team, announced Thursday, will see dozens of Alberta sheriffs monitor the area immediately north of the province’s shared border with Montana.
The team will establish roadside stops targeting commercial vehicles – heading to and from the province’s six land border crossings – for additional inspections, Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump, who takes office next month, is threatening to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, arguing that illegal drugs and migrants flood over their borders into the U.S.
Alberta’s proposed border team will crack down on drug and gun smuggling, human trafficking and other illegal activities, Mr. Ellis said. The province intended to deploy border measures in 2025, regardless of Mr. Trump’s proposed policies, he said at a press conference with the Premier on Thursday.
Ms. Smith said her government will work with federal law enforcement to protect Alberta’s slice of the international border.
“We’ll deny safe haven to criminals looking to operate in both countries, and if we succeed and maintain proper border security, I expect we’ll have a very strong relationship with the United States as we always have,” she said.
The Interdiction Patrol Team, consisting of 51 new positions for uniformed officers, will monitor the province’s 298 kilometre southern stretch. Alberta earmarked $29-million to launch the effort and said it will create a two-kilometre-deep “red zone” north of the border to aid in enforcement.
In October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended 11 people trying to enter the U.S., either without proper documentation or between ports, along the 733 kilometre border separating Montana from Alberta, eastern British Columbia and western Saskatchewan. Across the entire U.S.-Canada land border, CBP apprehended 1,283 people trying to enter the U.S. illegally that month.
CBP, in the year ended Sept. 30, apprehended 100 people making illegal entries along Montana’s northern edge, up from 77 people the year prior.
The RCMP, meanwhile, apprehended three asylum seekers entering Alberta from the U.S. between ports of entry from January to October and no irregular entrants in 2023, according to the most recent federal statistics.
B.C. Premier David Eby says he will not follow Alberta’s lead, although he shares concerns about lax border security.
“British Columbia will do our part, because we’re Canadians, and that’s what Canadians do, but we will not take over federal responsibilities at the border,” he told reporters on Thursday. “That’s their job. They’ve got to pay for it.”
Premier Doug Ford has said that the Ontario Provincial Police stand ready to do what is needed to help, and Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel has said that he wants the Sûreté du Québec providing support in municipalities near the border. Last week, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said his province’s conservation officers will soon be helping with surveillance near the U.S. border.
Alberta’s border patrol team will include 10 support staff, such as dispatchers, four dogs and 10 cold-weather drones, the province said.
By conducting its own patrols and stops, Alberta is treading close to federal jurisdiction. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) staffs 1,200 designated ports of entry, including at airports, while the RCMP is responsible for policing the vast Canada-U.S. border.
Already, federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has promised Mr. Trump that Canada will deploy additional drones, helicopters and personnel to safeguard its side of the border. The government is expected to unveil these new investments in the fall economic statement on Monday.
This week, Mr. LeBlanc reiterated that illegal migration from Canada to the U.S. is only 0.6 per cent of the total, and Canadian fentanyl is 0.2 per cent of the total of U.S. seizures. “But we also obviously acknowledge that one fentanyl pill is one fentanyl pill too many, and that we committed to continuing to work, obviously, with American authorities, both on the issue of illegal migration and the issue of synthetic drug seizures.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Smith said Alberta would not suspend energy exports to the U.S. as part of negotiations over tariffs, breaking from Ontario’s Mr. Ford, who on Wednesday threatened to withhold electricity exports as part of the fight.
“Under no circumstances will Alberta agree to cut off oil and gas exports,” Ms. Smith said at the press conference.
She also rejected imposing retaliatory tariffs on Alberta’s oil and gas, arguing that a 25-per-cent tariff on the province’s fossil-fuel exports would translate into $30-billion for Ottawa while making energy less affordable in North America.
Oil is Canada’s single largest export category – with more than four million barrels shipped to the U.S. each day – and the bread and butter of Alberta’s economy.
Ms. Smith has said that Mr. Trump has valid concerns related to illegal migrants and drug smuggling at the border.
Mr. Ellis said he’s long been concerned about the flow of drugs, especially synthetic opioid fentanyl, in and out of the province. Before Mr. Trump’s tariff pledge last month, Mr. Ellis had been working on establishing a team designed to stop the flow and said there are more than 30 officers already trained and ready to go to work.
“What president-elect Trump said – which we took very seriously – accelerated the process,” Mr. Ellis said.
The minister said nothing the province does will take away from the work of the CBSA or the RCMP – the latter of which has jurisdiction patrolling between ports of entry.
With reports from Justine Hunter