Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
In the news lately, obviously, there's been a tremendous amount about the border situation and the 25% tariff that's being thrown around down in the States, which would affect Canadians greatly. There are a lot of Canadians who are very nervous and upset about this. It could be coming forward and it could affect a lot of businesses and people. Now there's even talk of retaliation coming back from our side.
It's interesting that this all appears to have happened so quickly over the last couple of weeks with President-elect Trump's announcement of the issues of fentanyl and illegal immigration as problems at our border. Just a week ago or so, we had the minister here, and I asked that minister why it took comments by President-elect Trump to start acting on this serious situation.
Since that meeting, we've actually done some great research and found out that this has been an issue for quite some time. It has been very well known. I have here a meeting note from September 2023. The meeting was between the Minister of Public Safety and Ambassador of the United States David Cohen. This is an official document from Public Safety Canada.
In a nutshell, this talks about how, in September 2023, Minister LeBlanc met with the U.S. ambassador, David Cohen. A memo prepared for the minister ahead of this meeting, with input provided by the CBSA, stated that topics of interest and concern for the ambassador were fentanyl and illegal immigration at our shared border.
My question is for the CBSA individuals here today. Is it fair to say that the Government of Canada and the Minister of Public Safety in particular have been aware of the United States' concerns on these files well in advance of the election of Donald Trump?