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Spending $1.3 billion on border security was a bargaining chip in the trade war negotiations with the U.S., but details on how exactly it is going to impact crossings in the Okanagan are a bit murky.

Melinda Medland is the Chief of Operations for the Okanagan area ports for the Canadian Border Services Agency, and she oversees every U.S. crossing from Chopaka to Cascade.

“They're not likely to see a lot of change. In the background, we have things going on in terms of intelligence and targeting so that we can focus our efforts on interdicting some of those things like illegal drugs, firearms and high-risk people. So, for the average citizen, they're likely not going to see much change,” Medland said.

Out of the $1.3 billion, the CBSA is getting $355 million, the RCMP is getting $667 million and the rest is spread between the Communications Security Establishment, Health Canada, and Public Safety Canada.

Medland said she isn’t able to share specifics about individual crossings, such as the one in Osoyoos, because it’s common for criminals to try to find out details about crossings to discover the easiest port to smuggle through.

“While you might be using it for good, there could be other people that use that information as counterintelligence, and that's why we don't disclose those specifics,” she said.

She said people might notice more air surveillance like helicopters and drones, detector dogs and imaging technology, but a lot of the funding is going towards intelligence sharing to help border officers target criminals without increasing the average person’s time at the border.

This budget increase is a significant change in direction for the CBSA since in 2023 the federal government had decided to reduce its budget drastically over five years. Before president Donald Trump took office the plan was to reduce the CBSA’s budget by $66 million this year.

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“Pivoting is a large part of what we do in government,” Medland said. “We were making plans to streamline our processes and for us at the border our priorities are very distinct and don't change that much over time in that they're illicit drugs, firearms and high-risk people. So then to hear that we have this extra funding that's coming through the border plan and this initiative allows us to have more resources to do our jobs.”

The CBSA is in charge of official border crossings, but it is the RCMP that is responsible for policing the vast spaces between crossings.

“We do work quite closely with them, because if people are intercepted between the ports of entry, they're generally brought to the port of entry for processing. So there's a piece that the federal policing RCMP has to do for that interception, because it is illegal to cross the border between the ports of entry, not to mention unsafe, given our geography,” she said.

As far as the budget distribution impact of cases like the Falkland drug “superlab” and another clandestine drug lab recently discovered in North Okanagan, Medland said the CBSA works with the RCMP when criminal cases involve importing or exporting things like drugs and firearms.

“I can't speak specifically to that case in detail, but what I can say is that the RCMP and the CBSA, Canada Revenue Agency, they do work in partnership on a number of these files,” she said.

She said that although border security is getting more resources, the border has always been secure.

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“I would love for the public to know and have confidence that the border is secure and that border integrity has been and continues to be top of mind for our agency and for our law enforcement partners and that we are continuing to put efforts in to keep the community safe,” Medland said.

Cameron Bissonnette runs the duty free shop at the Osoyoos border and he said it’s hard to gauge how people crossing the border feel at the moment since this is a slower time of year compared to peak tourism months for the Okanagan.

“We are seeing U.S. traffic being somewhat flat. The Canadian traffic is down a little bit right now from the limited numbers that we have... It's kind of tough to get any really good numbers with such a small data sample for right now,” he said.

He said it’s important to improve security at the crossing, but there should be a balance with keeping traffic flowing through it.

“I think beefing up security on the border is a good thing with the caveat that we obviously don't want it to end up being a thickening of the border, meaning it's going to be more difficult for people to cross,” Bissonnette said.

“I don't think you're going to find too many Canadians that are going to be, in my opinion, upset with stronger border enforcement as long as it doesn't end up slowing the movement of goods and people.”

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