Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the New Democrats and Brian Masse, MP for Windsor West and New Democrat Critic for Industry, Canada-U.S. Border Relations and the Great Lakes, sent the following letter to David McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety of Canada, as well as to Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Finance of Canada and Ginette Petitpas Taylor, President of the Treasury Board of Canada on February 6, 2025.
Dear Minister McGuinty,
Following your press conference in Winnipeg, where you met with CBSA officers and re-announced the government’s border plan, we want to express disappointment that – while the $1.3 billion border fund is needed – there has been no progress whatsoever in hiring more border officers or providing them with further tools and supports to do their jobs. Border officers have been detailing the need for more officers and supports since before your government was first elected in 2015.
New Democrats have long supported our frontline border officers, working closely with the Customs Immigration Union (CIU) for decades. Despite the growing importance of border security, Canada’s border officers were not consulted on the government’s new border plans. They are the most knowledgeable about issues like cross-border crime, drug and gun trafficking, and irregular migration – yet their expertise has been overlooked by successive governments, including yours.
Our party has repeatedly called on your government to open a CBSA training facility in Windsor, Ontario to quickly address the staffing shortage caused by the Harper Government’s cuts in 2012. As you remember, they cut 1,100 border officers with detrimental effects at our ports of entry across Canada. Some ports of entry were closed, and others shifted to limited hours. K9 units were slashed, and the intelligence unit lost nearly half its agents. The current training facility in Rigaud, Quebec restricts the amount of border officers for training. Windsor can support a new facility almost immediately, and it’s desperately needed.
To make matters worse, border officers have had not been treated equally with other law enforcement agencies over the years. A 1932 Order-in-Council (OIC) continues restricting border officers from responding to incidents between ports of entry. Your government can easily overturn this OIC allowing officers the choice to act or respond to crime- in-progress and perform their duties within the laws that govern them. How can you claim to be keeping borders secure while preventing them from doing so?
Additionally, your government has promised legislation for the “25 and out” pension plan, which would align border officers with other law enforcement agencies, allowing them to retire after 25 years of service without pension reduction. We urge you to fulfill this commitment through an OIC since Parliament remains prorogued. Our officers deserve this benefit now considering they have been overworked for over a decade to accommodate understaffing issues.
Given the current border threats and potential tariffs, now is the time to rebuild our border workforce and provide the necessary resources to officers to effectively tackle crime. Blackhawk helicopters and drones do not stop criminals and crimes in progress, border officers do. Sadly, there simply aren’t enough of them.
Minister, we must hire more frontline officers, expand their authority to operate between ports of entry, and honour the promises made to them regarding pension reform. New Democrats will not stop fighting for our border officers and we urge your government to act swiftly on these requests, showing them the respect and appreciation for keeping Canadians safe every day. We look forward to your positive response and action on this request.
Yours truly,
Jagmeet Singh MP NDP Leader
Brian Masse MP NDP Critic for Industry, Automotive issues, Canada-US Border and Great Lakes
Click here for the PDF version of this letter.
