Premiers agree on need for more border security: Moe

Most, if not all, of the other premiers in Canada, emphasized the need for increased border security, according to Premier Scott Moe’s social media account.

Moe was part of a first ministers’ meeting with all the other premiers and the prime minister on Wednesday evening. They discussed the possible 25 per cent tariff announced by the U.S.A. President-elect Donald Trump on his social media Monday night. Trump said the tariff would go on all goods into the U.S.A. from Canada and Mexico until border concerns over drugs and illegal immigration were dealt with.

Speaking after the first ministers’ call to a crowd at Agribition, Moe said that, while Canada’s border is not the same as the Mexican one, he thinks all Canadians would agree with increasing border security.

“We are a very strong supporter and we voiced that with our federal government around increasing the border security that we have,” said Moe in a video posted to social media.

Moe also repeated he thinks border security could be brought under an arm of the military to increase Canada’s military spending and go further to meet its 2 per cent funding target to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“Because we will no sooner find this unjustified allegation of the Canadian border being the issue for one of our trading partners, but the next issue is going to be that we aren’t meeting our two per cent in our NATO commitment,” said Moe.

Moe was not made available to the media on Thursday to answer questions about the meeting.

Other premiers also explained different pieces of what was talked about during the first ministers’ phone call.

Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith, said she called for immediate steps to be taken to deal with illegal border activities. Francois Legault, Quebec’s premier, said he’d asked the prime minister for a detailed plan to secure the border but didn’t get a clear answer.

Also on the call was Dominic LeBlanc, federal public safety minister, who said he hoped no party would block any spending bill for additional resources for the border.

Manitoba premier Wab Kinew said he brought up strengthening federal investment in the RCMP in Manitoba during the meeting, saying there’s no downside to investing in police and cracking down on drug trafficking in Canada.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was also on the call and has said how important unity among the provinces is. She’d said she felt there was agreement around the table for everyone to “play for Team Canada.”

– with files from The Canadian Press