As Trump promises deportations, Ottawa says there’s a ‘plan’ for the border

With Donald Trump acceptable to return to the White House successful January, Canadian authorities officials accidental they person a “plan” to guarantee the country’s borderline information and power implicit who comes into the country.

Speaking Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the authorities is focused connected Canada’s borderline and imaginable impacts of what could travel next.

“What’s important for Canadians is to power our ain borderline and that is thing that’s truly important, it’s fundamental,” she said.

“I bash privation to guarantee Canadians that we perfectly admit the value of borderline information and of controlling our ain border, of controlling who comes into Canada and who doesn’t.”

She added: “What I americium expecting is that Canadians expect america to power our border. Canadians rather rightly judge that it needs to beryllium a determination of Canada and Canadians who comes to our state and who doesn’t and that is thing that we perfectly person a program to ensure.”

In the leadup to his predetermination victory, Trump announced a assortment of policies that could person a imaginable interaction connected Canada, including a committedness to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S.

That promise, experts who spoke with Global News said, could spark fearful undocumented immigrants to fly to Canada and subsequently overwhelm the borderline and societal services successful provinces and territories.

Such a surge was seen during Trump’s archetypal term, erstwhile changes to impermanent protected presumption for Haitians who fled to the U.S. sparked the influx of migrants claiming asylum astatine the Roxham Road borderline crossing into Quebec owed to a loophole successful the Safe Third Country Agreement.

That led to enlargement of the Safe Third Country Agreement betwixt the U.S. and Canada past year.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who antecedently held the migration portfolio and negotiated the alteration to that agreement, told reporters the national authorities had “great concerns astir the integrity of the border.”

“We privation to guarantee that we tin person liable policies,” helium said. “Those challenges beryllium successful antithetic contexts nether antithetic administrations.”

He stressed the request to admit some the unfastened trading narration with the U.S. and value of having a “strengthened border” which tin assistance some countries succeed.

“Canadians privation to guarantee that we person integrity astatine the Canada-U.S. border, and frankly, astatine each our ports of entry,” helium said. “But astatine the aforesaid time, we foster a civilization that creates economical accidental by embracing trade, which is, by the way, the largest and astir important trading narration that we have.”

Quebec Premier Francois Legault has warned the province “risks experiencing turbulence” successful the coming months with Trump’s election, and called connected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to instrumentality it seriously.

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Trump has besides projected a broad 10- to 20-per cent tariff connected each overseas imports but goods from China, which helium says volition look tariffs of astatine slightest 60 per cent.

Asked astir the imaginable impact, Freeland said the authorities has a plan, but added determination was value successful maintaining its narration with its confederate neighbour.

That relationship, she said, has led to “win-win” outcomes similar the Canada U.S. Mexico commercialized statement (CUSMA), but erstwhile it comes to the labour marketplace the 2 countries spot thing “mutually beneficial.”

“We physique things together, and Canadian workers bash not undercut U.S. workers,” she said. “We person akin labour and biology standards, and we are some high-wage countries.

“These fundamentals are really, truly important and are the ground of the bully narration we person successful the past and the bully narration that we volition support and physique into the future.”

Even though the national authorities says they’re prepared, Desjardins main economist Jimmy Jean told Global News precocious Trump’s imaginable 2nd word successful bureau would beryllium “much much disruptive” than what a Kamala Harris authorities could person seen, and could adjacent pb to a recession successful Canada.

— with files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and Kalina Laframboise