Public Safety Committee on Nov. 6th, 2025

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that.

Would the RCMP commissioner have anything to say about that?

[Jodie Boudreau, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Policing, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

I can confirm that we are also under way with training. I can't tell you if any have finished. I visited the training centre in Innisfail in Alberta in May. I saw how they were training. They explained to me how they were going to train with fentanyl. I can't tell you if any of them have completed, but we do work very closely with CBSA. That is one of the many profiles that we train our dogs on and one of the many different types of drugs.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I presume that it's a very complicated process, because it depends on the age of the dog, and the training is rather lengthy. You want to make sure that the dog is physically and mentally fit and that a trainer is assigned to each one of them. Is that correct?

[Jodie Boudreau]

It is a lengthy training. Most of our dogs have multiple profiles, which means they might do tracking; they might be bomb dogs or they might be drug dogs, so they have multiple profiles. I can't recall the exact time, but it's approximately four to six months of training. The complication with fentanyl, as President O'Gorman said, is the toxicity of it compared to cannabis or some other drugs—the toxicity for trainers and for the dogs as well.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

Now I have a very brief question for the minister. There was some discussion about 2016 and what the government was doing then. I do recall vividly that, at the time, the biggest concern was that the previous government in 2014 and 2015 had dismissed a number of CBSA officers. Is that correct, Minister?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

I think it's important to bring it back to Bill C-12 and why we're here. Without relitigating the past, I think it's important that we move forward. I sincerely hope that we'll have the support of all the parties here—

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Let me ask you a question on a very different matter. If someone were to come around and dismiss 1,000 CBSA officers and RCMP officers, what would be the consequence of that for the safety and security of Canadians?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

It certainly would have an impact. I can tell you that adding 1,000 CBSA and 1,000 RCMP officers, again, will have material impact, a positive impact on the ability of law enforcement to do their work at the border. I know that's what we're investing in now, and that's what I think is critical, whether it's the budget, Bill C-12 or the additional border investments we made in December. It all adds to strengthening the border.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you. That is, unfortunately, all the time we have.

Let me turn to MP Au for five minutes.

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

Once again, thank you for coming.

My time is very limited, so I will go straight to the question.

We could have the best legislation on paper, and we also might have the facilities to intercept illegal drugs at the border, but, if there's no deterrence, those measures will be useless. My question is this: Given the harmful effects of fentanyl, why were harsher penalties not included in the bill, particularly for possession, production and trafficking offences?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Mr. Au, I think everyone at this table shares the frustration that you have and the concern you have around fentanyl use. I've mentioned this before. I've personally been impacted by someone who died as a result of an overdose. I've seen many people over my lifetime in the work I've done who were impacted by it, so I think we all share the same objective.

Bill C-12 contains our border measures, important border measures that are meant to give additional tools to law enforcement. Correspondingly, I think the work that Minister Fraser has done with respect to Bill C-9 does speak to what you're talking about, the need to strengthen sentencing, including consecutive sentencing, ensuring that bail is not available and so on.

I do think it's a comprehensive approach. We're in different committees with those discussions, but it is very much a sequence and a constructive approach that we have towards—

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

Yes, but the fact is that we are addressing the fact that people are dying from using fentanyl, and we are seeing that fentanyl coming into our country in large amounts, so why are we not doing something faster and being more effective?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

You would know that I'm trying to be as apolitical as I can at this committee. What I will suggest is this. If you want to help on this issue, help us pass Bill C-2. Help us bring forward issues around the postal service, because if you talk to communities—if you talk to indigenous communities up north or in any remote areas—they will say that the number one way fentanyl comes into their communities is through the post office, and that's why we have those provisions in place. That's why we have issues around—

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

This is exactly what I'm hearing from the communities, though. They want to know why they have to wait for more people to die before actions are taken.

Going to the point that you just raised, I want to ask another question. Given that over 90% of fentanyl actually comes to Canada through B.C.—and we know that—why are resources not being distributed accordingly, so that we can address the problem in B.C. more effectively?

In your recent budget, I did not see any increase in resources devoted to B.C. to address the problem. We know that 90% of those illegal drugs come to Canada through B.C., so why is there no increase?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

B.C. is certainly an area where we have an incredible amount of resources. I can ask either the RCMP or CBSA to speak about it.

I can give you the broader examples. The 1,000 new CBSA officers and RCMP officers will be deployed to ports of entry in areas where there is high need.

B.C. has not only a high volume of traffic that comes in, but also probably one of the fastest-growing areas of port use. For example, the Prince Rupert port is expected to triple its capacity over the next decade.

The investments we're making right now, which are in this budget, will be going—and I can tell you with certainty—to B.C. They will be going to areas around the ports of entry.

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

Again, you're talking about the future.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

No, we're talking about now. We're talking about today. We're talking about the budget that's in front of us today, which will ensure that resources are going to British Columbia and that resources are going to the borders, through the investment in 1,000 RCMP officers and 1,000 CBSA officers.

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

Again, this is not happening today.

That brings me to this question. You promised that there would be testing labs in Vancouver and Toronto, so may I have an update? Are those facilities already in operation?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

The labs are available. If you would like a breakdown of where the labs are, I'd be more than willing to share that with you. I'd also invite you to go there. I would be more than willing to provide that access through our agencies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you very much for that input, Mr. Au.

I’ll now yield the floor to Mr. Ramsay for five minutes.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I’d like to allow Ms. Lang to finish her response to the question that Mr. Brunelle‑Duceppe asked just now, since she didn’t have the time to do so.

[Tara Lang]

Thank you very much.

I was saying that the second changes have to do with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act.

This is helping us improve integrity within our own system so that we can share information among ourselves in lines of business. As it stands right now, whenever you apply for a temporary resident visa, you have to apply once, and then as a PR, you apply again.

As a department, our officers currently cannot look at those applications. We have to ask the requester again for the material. This will help break down fraud, and also, it will be a client service piece if you have to tell us only once.

The part about onward sharing to foreign governments and other entities is strictly outside the scope of this legislation. I would want to say very specifically that it contains a prohibition against “onward sharing by provincial or territorial government partners to foreign entities, except with the [written] consent of IRCC and where this would happen in a way that complies with Canada's international obligations in respect of mistreatment, as defined in the Avoiding Complicity in Mistreatment by Foreign Entities Act”.

There is no onward sharing. This is strictly to be proactive in sharing information with provinces and territories as well as other federal agencies with information-sharing agreements and/or regulations.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I'd like to go back to Bill C-8, if possible.

Minister—

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I have a point of order.

[Jacques Ramsay, Liberal, La Prairie—Atateken, QC]

I think this has been discussed already.