With the threat of tariffs potentially looming a month away, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan says talks with Canada over border security are “positive,” but not yet. He said he was waiting for details.
“There’s no better conversation to have in Canada,” Homan said Thursday in an exclusive interview with CTV’s Power Play host Vassie Kapelos. “Obviously we have to take action, but the results of our conversations make me very optimistic that we will have a good border security plan.”
Last month, President Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports on his first day in office until Canada addresses the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants across our shared border. President Trump has made similar threats against Mexico.
Finance Secretary Dominic LeBlanc presented a $1.3 billion border security package on Tuesday, with the federal government saying plans to tighten border security were already in the works before Trump’s warning. The plan includes a new air task force and additional human resources for port-to-port surveillance, with the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency expected to soon recruit approximately 100 to 150 people. This is the goal.
“I will meet with Canadian officials in the coming days to discuss specifics,” Homan said in a meeting with Kapelos.
LeBlanc also confirmed Thursday that he plans to meet with Homan after Christmas, but said he had a “very positive preliminary call” with Homan earlier this week.
Asked directly by Kapelos whether Canada could avoid tariffs if Canada’s border plan met President Trump’s concerns, Homan said, “I can’t speak for the president, but the president’s biggest concern is the border. I can say it’s about security.”
Homan added: “If Canada comes and becomes a good partner for us, I think our relationship with President Trump will go a long way.”
Homan also said he would provide Trump with “a lot” of information about the meeting with Canada, saying “Trump will be well-informed.”
Border czar: ‘Canada’s immigration laws are too lax’
In conversations with Canadian officials, Homan said he also expressed concern about cross-border crime in Canada.
“I think Canada’s immigration laws are too lenient. It’s very easy to get into Canada,” Homan told Kapelos. “Compared to the U.S., there’s not a lot of vetting going on.”
“We are certainly concerned about the number of foreign nationals coming across the northern border into the United States from special interest countries like India, Pakistan and Turkiye,” Homan said. “The number of borders on our northern border has increased by 600 percent compared to the previous administration.”
Homan made similar comments last month in an interview with 7News, in which he called the Canadian border a “major national security issue.”
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), nearly 24,000 encounters with migrants were recorded between Canada and the U.S. border points between October 2023 and September 2024. , this is a significant increase compared to 916 cases during the same period in 2021.
But CBP told CTV News that encounters at the northern border between official ports of entry decreased by more than 64% between June and October of this year due to increased enforcement efforts in response to “changing migration trends.” spoke.
Despite an increase in immigrants entering the United States from Canada in recent years, that number remains well below the 1.5 million who entered the United States from Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024.
CBP also announced that it has seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canada-U.S. border in the past year, compared to 21,148 pounds at the southern border with Mexico.
Asked about the population differences between Canada and Mexico, Homan acknowledged that “the southern border is the biggest issue because of the sheer volume of goods,” but added that security concerns about the Canada-U.S. I reiterated my concerns.
“After 9/11, a federal study found that terrorists were 10 times more likely to cross the northern border than the southern border, simply because there were fewer border assets there and fewer agents. Because he’s not there,” Homan said.
But Homan said Canada has responded “more positively” to Trump’s concerns than Mexico and called Canadian officials “a willing partner.”
“(Canada) is positive about this and we appreciate it,” Homan said. “Mexico, they’ve said some things that I like, but what I think we need hasn’t come yet. So there’s still work to do.”
With files from CTV News’ Samantha Pope, Rachel Aiello and Spencer Van Dyke
