Neglecting our border led us to this point: Emerson mayor

The Mayor of a Manitoba border community is happy to see border security being beefed up but said he wonders why it took threats from the U.S. for governments in Canada to do something that many in his community have spent years pleading for.

“It’s too bad that neglecting our border security for so long has led to this moment,” Emerson-Franklin Mayor Dave Carlson said.

On Monday, Trump backed down on his earlier promise to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods coming into the U.S., after the U.S. president said he came to “agreements” with both countries that will see bolstered security at both of their borders with the U.S.

On the provincial level, Manitoba’s Premier Wab Kinew has also announced several new border security measures in recent weeks, including deploying conservation officers to the border, as the premier said Manitoba is also focused on ensuring that tariffs on Canadian goods don’t become a reality.

Carlson said his community saw a significant surge in illegal border crossing back in 2017, after Trump was elected president for the first time, because he said he believes the federal government was not prepared for how many migrants would be looking to get out of the U.S. once Trump was elected.

And with Trump now in his second week back in office, Carlson said the community has been expecting another migrant surge, which he said can exhaust community resources, and often puts first responders in harm’s way when migrants get trapped in what can be cold and dangerous terrain in rural Manitoba.

He said he hopes all the new focus on the border will work to deter migrants from trying to cross into Canada in his and in other border communities.

“I think this should act as a deterrent,” Carlson said. “If Canada remains steadfast on this and said ‘don’t come or we will send back,’ I think that will be a deterrent as well, because once you cross the border and you are intercepted, then now you are in the system, and they know about you and they could potentially deport you.”

But Carlson added he wishes the beefed up security we are now seeing would have come sooner, as he said his community has been asking for improvements to border security for years, and said those calls often fell on deaf ears

“I think there was a fear of overwhelming our resources again, and no one wants to see human smuggling or drugs or weapons crossing the border so this is a good thing,” he said.

“But it shouldn’t take threats from the U.S. for Canada to finally take its border security seriously.”

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.