A lone car enters the US as people block highway 75 with heavy trucks and farm equipment and access to the Canada/US border crossing at Emerson, Man., Feb. 10, 2022.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Manitoba is redeploying conservation officers from multiple municipalities to patrol the parts of Canada’s border with the United States that cross through the province, mandating staff who work on wildlife services and natural resources to focus more on thwarting drug trafficking and human smuggling through backcountry areas.
The new measures to beef up security, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Monday, are part of his government’s effort at defusing U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Canada. Unless this country cracks down on the flow of migrants and fentanyl-laced drugs across its southern border, Mr. Trump has warned he would impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all Canadian goods as early as Feb. 1.
Mr. Kinew said Manitoba’s conservation officers are being relocated from their regular stations in Winnipeg, Steinbach, Virden, Boissevain, Manitou and Sprague. They are now patrolling the border using helicopters, utility terrain vehicles and snowmobiles, as they surveil for illegal crossings and work with the RCMP to lay criminal charges.
“President Trump has changed the world, and we all have to respond,” Mr. Kinew said at a news conference held next to the provincial road that connects the busy Emerson-Pembina and Gretna-Neche crossings, two Canada-U.S. ports of entry from Manitoba to North Dakota.
“This is one of the ways that we’re responding. We’ve always had a strong and secure border, and now we’re showing it in a much more visible fashion.”
Manitoba’s plan to redeploy conservation staff for border duties is in contrast with some other provinces, including neighbouring Ontario, which are instead adding more police officers for security on the 49th parallel.
The province will be spending around $360,000 for the redeployment, Mr. Kinew said, adding that his government is also budgeting $460,000 for the RCMP to work overtime at the border over the next few months.
Mr. Kinew cautioned, however, that Manitoba’s border measures are being carefully aligned with the province’s “values” versus those of Mr. Trump.
That means providing medical help and shelter to the migrants who are “desperately threatening life and limb to cross in a cold Manitoba winter,” he said, referring to the case of an Indian family of four who froze to death in early 2022 just a few kilometres away from Emerson, Man.
(The trial for that case concluded late last year with a Minnesota jury convicting two men – Steve Shand from Florida, and Harshkumar Patel, a man from India arrested in Chicago – on four counts related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., though their lawyers have since sought acquittals or retrials.)
“We’re responding in a way that’s consistent with who we’ve always been as Manitobans. And that’s to be a friendly people who have a big heart and are willing to help people in need,” Mr. Kinew said.
The Premier said about 11 or so conservation officers have already been redeployed. But he declined to provide updated figures for current staff in the field.
“We’d like to hire more,” he said, blaming reductions among conservation staff on cuts by the province’s previous Progressive Conservative government.
Mr. Kinew said his New Democrats inherited a 20-per-cent vacancy rate among conservation officers, claiming his government has reduced that to 10 per cent, without noting the total number of officers in the department.
“We are asking these officers to do more, I’ll be very clear about that. And that’s why the note of appreciation and gratitude and thanks is sincere,” he said.
The PC Party had suggested in late December that there were 90 conservation officers in the field.
“Under Wab Kinew and Justin Trudeau, Manitoba’s border security has never been weaker,” Tory Opposition Leader Wayne Ewasko said in an e-mailed statement to The Globe and Mail.
“Conservation officers have an important job protecting public safety and our fish, wildlife and forest resources, but pulling them away from their core duties to patrol the border is not a permanent solution,” he wrote. “Manitobans want to see a plan to address gaps in border security and drug enforcement without compromising conservation efforts.”
Kyle Ross, president of Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, which represents conservation officers, said he feels “fairly in the dark” about Mr. Kinew’s plan.
He said the union has not been consulted about changes to staffing and job descriptions, which may be required for their redeployment.
“Our conservation officers are already stretched very thin, and they’re working understaffed. Their wages aren’t as competitive as they should be either,” he said. “I’m worried that their other duties, such as on wildlife, may slip up because of this.”