Federal government considering spending $1 billion on border security

The Trudeau government is considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the Canada-U.S. border in an attempt to allay Donald Trump’s concerns and avoid his threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs. Several sources who spoke to Radio-Canada say the amount could exceed $1 billion. The plan has not been finalized and various scenarios will be presented to the federal cabinet soon. In the past few days, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has announced his intention to increase the number of officers at the border and to buy additional equipment, such as drones and helicopters, to increase patrols. In an interview on Sunday, Trump repeated his threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico unless they curb the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders.