Keep calm and plan on, federal ministers told on asylum seeker influx
OTTAWA — Canada’s national police force and border watchdog say they have the resources they need — for now — to deal with the influx of people entering the country illegally in search of asylum, the federal minister in charge said Tuesday.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters that the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency “have affirmed to me and to the prime minister and to the cabinet that the resources they have and the legal tools that they have are appropriate and sufficient to enforce the law.”
But one what-if scenario was on everyone’s mind at the cabinet meeting Tuesday on the issue — hundreds of asylum seekers suddenly becoming thousands when the weather turns warm.
Several federal agencies are planning for that possibility as they contemplate the point at which an increasing number of newcomers suddenly demands both a political and an operational response.