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OTTAWA — The RCMP says it is has planned for a possible influx of asylum seekers trying to enter Canada from the United States and has learned lessons from the last time Donald Trump was in the Oval Office.
While questions remain about how Trump’s campaign pledge to deport upwards of 11 million people he says are in the country illegally could take shape after the Republican president-elect assumes office in January, Canadian authorities say they have “worked through” scenarios of a sudden surge at Canada’s borders.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who oversees both the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency, told the House of Commons on Thursday the plans that are in place have “been there for months.”
“I think we need to have confidence in them,” he told MPs in French, during question period.
Divulging what those precise plans are to the floor of the House “would be very irresponsible,” he added, with Immigration Minister Marc Miller in agreement.
National security agencies have spent months preparing for what could happen at the Canada-U.S. border and are monitoring the situation, LeBlanc’s office added in a statement afterwards.
Canada saw a spike in people trying to enter at the U.S. border following Trump’s election in 2016. In 2017, Trump also announced a ban on people entering the U.S. from seven Muslim majority countries.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then less than two years into his first and only majority mandate, responded at the time by posting on X that refugees fleeing persecution were welcome in Canada.
Since then, public sentiments around immigration have changed drastically.
Premiers and economists have spent the past year sounding the alarm that Canada’s housing supply and other social supports have not been able to keep up with the numbers of people who have entered the country, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Temporary immigration has been the driver of much of the concern.
Last month, Trudeau announced that Canada was slashing its immigration targets after years of back-to-back increases, acknowledging the Liberals “didn’t get the balance quite right” as it looked to immigration to fill labour shortages coming out of the pandemic.
With Trump threatening mass deportations, Miller’s office said in a statement on Thursday that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, “will continue to prepare and anticipate all possible scenarios.”
“Any approach taken will be first and foremost in the best interest of Canada and all those who live there.”
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has called on Ottawa to increase its border controls in light of Trump’s election. He said the province’s housing and other services are already overburdened because of the around 600,000 temporary immigrants in the province, adding he does not want to see that number climb.
The Opposition Conservatives, whose leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized Trudeau for how he handled the last Trump presidency, have not yet responded to a question about whether the party shares concerns about a potential increase in asylum seekers.
On Thursday, an RCMP spokeswoman said the Mounties have spent time preparing for a possible influx of people trying to enter Canada illegally.
“In anticipation of the U.S. election, the RCMP worked through various scenarios in the event of a sudden increase in irregular migration between official ports of entry at the Canada-U.S. border,” Camille Boily-Lavoie wrote in an emailed response.
“Lessons learned from the migratory movement experienced by Canada between 2016 and 2023, which was in part related to the 2016 U.S. election, has provided us with the tools and insight necessary to address similar types of occurrences.”
Canada and the U.S. struck an updated agreement in March 2023 to try to control the flow of migrants across unofficial border crossings, such as Roxham Road in Quebec, which it closed.
Thousands of people have entered Canada through that unofficial crossing before its closure. Since then, Quebec and Ontario have seen a jump in the number of people claiming asylum in Canada who are arriving by air.
Both Miller and LeBlanc are among ministers who have been tapped to serve on a special cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Trudeau reestablished the group following Trump’s win, which has sent worries throughout various Canadian industries as the president-elect has proposed imposing tariffs on global imports.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly confirmed the committee will have their first meeting on Friday.
On immigration, she said the reason Canada lowered its targets by some 20 per cent was to ensure the system is one that Canadians trust. “We will defend it,” Joly said.
National Post
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