The Conservative Party of Canada has released a comprehensive border plan as part of its election commitments, pledging to undertake a number of measures to strengthen Canada’s borders, including hiring 2,000 new officers and allowing our members to do their job across the breadth of the border, not just at ports of entry.
The Customs and Immigration Union welcomes the CPC’s pledge to hire new officers — which would effectively restore CBSA positions eliminated during the Harper years. How this may be affected by the CPC’s proposed reductions to the public service through attrition — which could reach 17,000 per year — remains to be seen.
Also very positive is the commitment to authorize border officers to fulfill their duties at and between ports of entry. With the NDP and the Bloc, this means three of the main federal parties have now made it clear that allowing our members to patrol between ports in addition to the RCMP should be a priority.
While the commitment to install new technology such as scanners at ports of entry is positive, it is unfortunate that part of the Conservative plan points to a militarization of the border with the deployment of military helicopters and surveillance towers. The primary focus should be on building a sustainable, properly staffed border infrastructure that relies on the unique expertise of border officers, putting workers first. Beyond hiring new border officers, any long-term solution also needs to take into consideration adequate training facilities, which is absent from the CPC’s current border plan.
Worrisome plan for public sector
CIU is disappointed to note that also absent from the Conservative platform is a commitment to support legislation to make ‘25 and out’ a reality for our members. Supporting pension reform would signal that the CPC recognizes the demanding nature of the work performed by our members.
Beyond the lack of clear support for ‘25 and out’, the Conservative Party’s plan for the public sector, as outlined in the party’s Policy Declaration, is generally worrisome, from proposed cuts to public sector pensions (including our members’) by moving from a defined benefit model to a defined contribution model (Article 33 of the Policy Declaration, p.10), to threats to core Canadian union principles such as the RAND formula (Article 17 of the Policy Declaration, p.6).
Read the full CPC election plan here.
