Alberta’s premier came away from a meeting with the US president-elect this weekend saying a 25-per cent tariff on Canadian goods looks likely.
“I think we need to be prepared that tariffs are coming,” Premier Danielle Smith told reporters Monday.
But that is not stopping the province from working to address the border security concerns Donald Trump has said Canada must tackle if it wants to avoid crippling tariffs.
Since December, Alberta has been preparing to establish a new sheriffs’ patrol team to police its 300-kilometre border with Montana. The Interdiction Patrol Team will cost the province $15 million a year and consist of 51 armed officers, 10 surveillance drones, four drug-sniffing dogs and four narcotics analyzers.
The initiative adds to the debate over whether Alberta is right to be unilaterally trying to appease Trump’s demands — and whether its response addresses a real security need.
“While there is no doubt the Alberta government announced their ‘border protection’ plan in direct response to Trump’s tariff threat … this plan seemingly is more about the Alberta government yet again highlighting Ottawa’s shortcomings,” Kelly Sundberg, a professor of criminology and justice at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi criticized Smith for its border security plan, arguing it encroaches on Ottawa’s jurisdiction and undercuts a Team Canada approach to responding to Trump.
“For a premier who is forever telling Ottawa to stay in its lane, to spend Alberta taxpayer money on border control using Alberta sheriffs makes no sense and is out of step with the work being done by other provinces and the federal government,” Nenshi told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
In its 2024 Fall Economic Statement, Ottawa proposed a $1.3-billion investment in border security, with enhanced funding for the Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP. But with Parliament prorogued until March 24, and an election likely to be called thereafter, it is unclear when or whether this investment will materialize.
Scott MacCumber, mayor of Coutts, Alta., says the extra resources for Alberta’s border security will address a real security gap. Coutts, a 250-person village on the Alberta-Montana boundary, is the main border crossing in the province.
“The Milk River [RCMP] detachment is 20 kilometres north of [Coutts],” said MacCumber. That detachment is only notified when residents notice illegal crossings in the Coutts area, he says.
“We have houses in Coutts that face the border. When residents notice people crossing illegally, they call the RCMP detachment in Milk River, who then respond by dispatching officers to the area,” MacCumber said.
The Alberta border security plan includes the creation of a two-kilometre deep “critical border zone” along the entirety of its 300-kilometre international border. The province says that, within this zone, law enforcement will be authorized to conduct warrantless arrests of individuals suspected of weapons or drug smuggling or unauthorized border crossings.
Firearms seizures by the Canada Border Services Agency’s prairie division have been increasing in recent years. In 2024, the division seized 94 firearms, up from 77 in 2023 and 58 firearms in 2022.
Narcotics seizures have remained relatively stable over the same period. The prairie division seized 1,594 illegal narcotics in 2024, compared to 1,767 in 2023 and 1,536 in 2022.
Unauthorized border crossings are up, but remain very modest. The RCMP intercepted seven asylum seekers between Alberta points of entry in 2024, none in 2023 and four people in 2022.
Sundberg, of Mount Royal University, says Alberta’s plan is more focused on addressing drug and weapons trafficking than illegal border crossings.
“After all, immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and any arrests of an ‘illegal’ require the provincial authority to hand the non-citizen over to the CBSA,” said Sundberg. By contrast, the provinces have jurisdiction to address criminal matters such as guns or drugs.
If a non-citizen is convicted of drug or gun smuggling in an Alberta court, they serve their sentence and are then transferred to the Canada Border Services Agency for removal.
Other sources suggested Alberta’s investment in its border security has been well-received — regardless of the politics driving the decision.
“The RCMP and CBSA are both supportive of our efforts to collaborate on the matter of border security, and we’ll continue to engage with them regularly as we build this team out and collectively work toward our shared objectives,” Mike Ellis, Alberta’s public safety minister, told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
Robert Cyrenne, a RCMP director of communications, seconded this view.
“The RCMP … is looking forward to working in collaboration and in partnership with the newly announced Alberta Sheriffs’ Interdiction Patrol Team,” Cyrenne said.
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