New critical border zone bisects Taber-Warner riding

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Ryan Dahlman

By Trevor Busch
Commentator/Courier
editor@tabertimes.com

With tariff threats looming, Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government moved quickly last month to try to placate president-elect Donald Trump’s concerns about illegal drugs, migrants and firearms flowing across the 49th parallel.

In mid-December, shortly after Trump threatened 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian trade, Smith announced a new Interdiction Patrol Team (IPT) within the Alberta Sheriffs will crack down on drug smuggling, gun trafficking and other illegal activities occurring along Alberta’s 298-kilometre international boundary.

MLA Grant Hunter, whose Taber-Warner riding bisects a significant portion of the Alberta – U.S. international border, was cautious in his optimism about how effective the new unit will be in achieving the aims it has been tasked with.

“I think it’s a little too early to tell – lots of us have asked this question,” said Hunter. “I think that the Sheriffs have proven themselves to be quite effective in their roles. We set up a special Sheriff’s task force in Lethbridge, and they’ve shut down three drug sites since they’ve been set up. That was the intent of that group, so I think that they could do it. I think that there’s the possibility that they can be successful, as we’ve seen it work even in Calgary and Edmonton, where they were brought in to fix the problems that Calgary and Edmonton were facing on the transit system, they were able to be successful at beefing up security there. So I do think the Sheriff Department has the ability to do some good, and we’ll just have to see on this one. I think it’s a very good question, though.”

The IPT will include 51 uniformed officers equipped with carbine rifles (weapons for tactical operations); 10 support staff, including dispatchers and analysts; four drug patrol dogs, critical to ensure reasonable suspicion to search vehicles; 10 cold weather surveillance drones that can operate in high winds with dedicated pilots; and four narcotics analyzers to test for illicit drugs.

The team will patrol to detect and intercept illicit drugs, illegal firearms and unlawful attempts at illegal international border crossing.

The announcement also creates a two kilometre-deep “critical border zone” deemed critical infrastructure, to enable the sheriffs to arrest individuals found attempting to cross the border illegally or attempting to traffic illegal drugs or weapons, without needing a warrant. This critical border zone will be created by amending regulations under the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, and “will not apply to people travelling legally along Alberta highways and roads.”

Critics have called the move an unnecessary knee-jerk reaction to the belligerence of an incoming U.S. president, one which may also tread heavily on federal jurisdiction for border security. Any numbers were conspicuously absent from the premier’s announcement, but the latter also raises the spectre of cost: how much should provincial taxpayers be expected to shell out to enhance what is essentially a federal responsibility?

Although the “critical border zone” will flow through the Taber-Warner riding, in terms of oversight and accountability Hunter is currently unsure if border-region MLAs will be brought into the loop for operational decisions.

“I have not been asked to. I will certainly be brought into the loop in terms of what’s happening. But no, I haven’t been asked in terms of operational, but again, I think it’s a little bit too early to tell what’s going to happen. We’re kind of fleshing out these details – that’s not to say that they wouldn’t bring me in because almost three quarters of the U.S. border is my riding. So there’s certainly a possibility that the MLAs that are on the border will be brought in, in terms of just understanding operationally how it’s going to play out, and understanding briefings. I’d like to be able to see something like that, but they said they’re very early in the game right now.”