François Legault wants Ottawa to present a detailed plan regarding the border

Quebec Premier François Legault believes it is “urgent” that his federal counterpart Justin Trudeau present his plan to strengthen security at the Canada-U.S. border, in the context where the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, is threatening to impose customs duties on Canadian imports.

A few hours before a meeting of the premiers, which is to focus on relations with the United States, Legault wanted to publicly send a message to Trudeau Wednesday morning in Quebec City.

“I will repeat to him that it is urgent that he submit a plan to secure the borders, to avoid having tariffs,” maintained the Quebec premier upon his arrival at the meeting.

“This plan must be quantified: how much money it puts in, how many people it adds. It is urgent if we do not want to have tariffs.”

Trump is threatening to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports if the Trudeau government doesn’t do more to secure the border. In his view, the Canada-U.S. border is allowing too much fentanyl and illegal immigrants to enter the United States.

Legault also recalled that he had the opportunity to speak with Trump last weekend, on the sidelines of the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. In light of this meeting, which lasted about 10 minutes, he said he was “more convinced than ever” of the urgency of submitting a plan regarding the border.

‘The plan is ready‘

On the Ottawa side, the Minister of Procurement and political lieutenant of the Liberals for Quebec, Jean-Yves Duclos, maintained that “the plan is ready” and that Trudeau will present it to the premiers of the provinces and territories during the meeting on Wednesday.

However, he did not confirm that this plan will be quantified, as Legault requested.

“We’ll see how it goes. Trudeau is the master of his agenda, obviously, and I expect a positive reaction from the premiers of the provinces and territories, because we’re all part of the same Team Canada,” he said in a press scrum.

“This is an important opportunity to talk with premiers about our Team Canada approach,” Trudeau said as he headed to Question Period. “Having premiers with different perspectives and different approaches reinforces the shared values ​​that we have as Canadians and helps us be there to defend the interests of Canadians.

“We need a coordinated and coherent approach to the challenge of Donald Trump. There is strength in numbers, and there is unrest in division,” added Liberal MP John McKay.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller stressed that the government must strike the right tone.

“Sure, there are some crazy things that happen, there are some shenanigans, but we have to be serious about this. Canadians expect their government to take the border seriously, to keep Canadians safe,” he said.

“We can’t be pitted against ourselves and against conflicting objectives, I think that’s very important. Everything the United States does has a very significant impact on Canada, so this is not the time to be playing partisan politics,” he added. 

Wednesday’s meeting between Trudeau and his counterparts will be the second since Trump won the November presidential election in the U.S., and the first since Trudeau and some of his staff were invited to dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida with Trump nearly two weeks ago.

Since that event, Trump’s comments — who reportedly suggested that Canada become the 51st state of the United States — have sparked a lot of reaction.

The president-elect added another layer on Tuesday, when he referred to Trudeau as the governor of the “great state of Canada” in a post on his social network Truth.

According to Legault ‘s official schedule , the meeting between the premiers is to take place virtually at 4 p.m.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews