‘We’re going to be very visible’: Minister Champagne on border plan amid Trump’s tariff threat

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the Canadian presence at the border it shares with the U.S. will be “very visible” in response to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s recent tariff threats.

“You can dispute some numbers, but the point is that we’re going to show it. We’re going to be very visible,” Champagne insisted to host Vassy Kapelos in an interview on CTV Question Period.

The comments come days after Trump threatened to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports unless Canada addresses his border concerns. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump said the tariff “will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

The warning has since sparked major questions over the economic impact the tariffs would have on jobs, inflation and supply chains in both countries.

Following an urgent request from premiers, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau met with all 13 of them on Wednesday, just 48 hours after Trump’s original post. They collectively urged the federal government to strengthen the border.

Following that meeting, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday that “additional investments” will be made at the border, but he was short on specifics.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland reiterated to reporters Friday that further investments will be made.

“Canadians have the right to control who comes into Canada and to control who doesn’t,” Freeland said. “That means we have to make the necessary investments to keep ensuring that our border is secure. Our government is committed to doing that.”

When pressed repeatedly by Kapelos on when Ottawa will deliver on that border plan, Champagne said “very quickly, but also very methodically.”

His comments came before Trudeau made a surprise trip to Florida to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s club and resort, Friday night. Senior government sources tell CTV News the two discussed border security, among a slate of other topics during the trip.

Champagne, who is a member of the revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, also said while “there’s some perception on the numbers” that need to be dealt with, the federal government needs “to put assets on the border, and then we need to talk about the things that we can do together.”

Since Trump’s threat, the federal government has attempted to highlight the difference between illegal migrants travelling from Canada into the U.S. and those coming from Mexico. A senior government source told CTV News the prime minister conveyed statistics to Trump during their phone call Monday night.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), there were 23,721 encounters at the Canada-U.S. border between Oct. 2023 and Sept. 2024 compared to 1.5 million at the U.S. southern border with Mexico. But there has been an uptick in encounters at the Canada-U.S. border, with 10,021 in 2023 and 2,238 in 2022.

CBP also tells CTV News that expanded enforcement efforts to respond to “changing migration trends” has reduced encounters at the northern border between official ports of entry by more than 64 per cent between June and October of this year.

The agency has also seized 43 lbs of fentanyl at the Canada-U.S. border in the past year compared to 21,148 lbs at its southern border with Mexico.

Champagne says addressing illegal border crossings and drug trafficking benefits both countries.

“It’s in our mutual interest to protect the border and interdict fentanyl, and I think then we can somehow separate that from trade, because that is a totally different issue,” Champagne said. “So I’d say at least the two things that (Trump) mentioned is two things that we can work together on.”

When asked by Kapelos why Ottawa did not act sooner to address the border amid the possibility of Trump’s re-election, Champagne insisted the federal government did.

“We knew that border and trade would be two things that would be the focus of President Trump,” he said.

“I would challenge that we didn’t do the work to prepare all that,” he also said. “We have all these scenarios planning. We have the force ready. We have the equipment ready. But some of Trump’s assertions do not match the reality on the ground.”

In an exclusive interview with CTV’s Question Period also airing Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford — who chairs the Council of the Federation of Canada’s premiers — said Trudeau assured the provincial leaders there will be a border plan, but he did not lay out an exact timeline.

“We look forward to hearing the plan, and we can’t wait a month or two months,” Ford told Kapelos. “We have to get a plan extremely quickly, and we’ll see what the federal government comes back to us with.”

Ford is also calling for both the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP to get more resources.

“The border is not (Ontario’s) jurisdiction, but any way we can stop the flow of drugs going back and forth across the border, we’ll be there and contribute in any way we can,” Ford said.

With files from CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk