Canada’s border security package welcome but late: Republican senator

WASHINGTON — A prominent Republican senator says Canada’s recent investment in border security — announced in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threat — is tardy but welcome.

James Risch, chair of the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, says border security should be a Canadian policy priority and he wants to see Ottawa make sustained investments.

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Ottawa promised a $1.3 billion border security plan in December after Trump said he would hit Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs in response to what he called both countries’ failure to curb people and drugs crossing the border illegally.

Trump didn’t implement the duties on his first day back in office as he’d vowed to do, but he has suggested the tariffs could come on Feb. 1 and a report on U.S. trade with Canada ordered by the president is due in April.

Canadian cabinet ministers have been cycling through Washington in recent weeks for meetings with Republican lawmakers to make the case that tariffs would harm both the Canadian and American economies.

But Risch, a senator for Idaho, says Canada is falling behind on economic and defence matters and Trump will want to see that change.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press