Ontario Building Fortress Am-Can to Strengthen Security on Both Sides of the Border

On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Premier Doug Ford outlined Ontario’s plan to strengthen security on land, water and in the air along the Canada-U.S. border, including protecting Arctic sovereignty, as a key component of Fortress Am-Can, a renewed strategic alliance between Canada and the United States. For the plan to succeed, the province is calling on the federal government to step up and take measurable and visible action to better secure our borders.

“Ontario continues to call on the federal government to do more to protect our borders and reaffirm our sovereignty,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Building Fortress Am-Can is our government’s plan for a renewed strategic alliance between America and Canada and demonstrates our responsibility as an essential ally dedicated to protecting our land, air and water. In an increasingly unstable world, Fortress Am-Can can protect integrated supply chains, ensure our economic stability and growth, and detect and prevent any threat to our two nations. Ontario is ready and has the strategic capabilities to do our part to get this done.”

Ontario recently launched Operation Deterrence, the province’s preparedness and planning framework for enhanced security at international borders and tackling criminal activity that is harming people on both sides of the border. This includes an emergency response team of 200 officers who along with frontline and speciality officers, are enhancing border security in partnership with the RCMP and have already detected, disrupted and deterred illegal activity at the border.

The Operation is in addition to ongoing efforts to better protect Ontario-U.S. borders and combat cross-border illegal activity and ensure public safety, including the OPP’s Joint Forces Border Drug Interdiction Task Force, which was stood up as an expansion to a number of ongoing multi-jurisdictional drug investigations, with participants including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency and a number of municipal and First Nations police services.

To build Fortress Am-Can and ensure Canada is seen as a reliable partner ready to protect Am-Can land, air and water, Ontario recommends the following:

• Present a credible and accelerated plan to meet and exceed Canada’s two per cent NATO target for defence spending, including investing in the future success of NORAD operations and NORAD base restoration.
• Invest in Canada’s unique strategic capabilities and competencies, including Ontario’s critical mass of innovation in artificial intelligence to support the future of autonomous combat aerial and underwater vehicles for both military and border security and detection purposes.
• Expanding Canada’s shipbuilding capacity to build new ice breakers and other equipment and assets, including increasing capacity at Ontario-based shipbuilding facilities, to protect Canada’s Arctic and meet other security objectives.
• Work with the U.S. to capture new and catalyzing investments that support accelerated access to urgently needed strategic and critical minerals to qualify as part of Canada’s NATO contributions.
• Secure Am-Can borders and key economic and trade corridors, including the St. Lawrence Seaway, Windsor-Detroit Gateway and the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2025.
• Stem the cross-border flow of illegal guns, contraband tobacco and illegal drugs like fentanyl. This should include increased permanent funding for increased oversight and support at the border and enhanced tools for law enforcement, as well as investments to expand cross-border coordination and operations between American and Canadian security and policing agencies.
• Enhance tracking and tracing of illicit drugs by investing in new laboratory technology that will allow Canada to identify where fentanyl and other drugs seized by police services are manufactured for enhanced tracking and tracing.
• Allow for enhanced data and intelligence sharing between federal, provincial, territorial and local police forces to promote better coordination.
• Lower thresholds for Am-Can intelligence sharing on the cross-border movements of convicted sex offenders.
• Crack down on illegal immigration, which threatens shared Am-Can national security, and invest in enhanced biometrics capabilities at Canada’s points of entry, including better tracking of entries and exits across Canada’s borders.
• Further promote joint training, operations and scenario-planning between American and Canadian armed forces, particularly in the Arctic, including by expanding Canada’s advanced fighter pilot training resources.

Ontario is uniquely positioned to leverage artificial intelligence and other computing advancements for the future security needs of Canada and the U.S. With more than 400 artificial intelligence firms and institutions, Canada and Ontario are at the centre of an AI-enabled future. Ontario is a world-leader in developing AI talent and Toronto has the highest concentration of AI startups in Canada. Ontario has generated close to $14 billion in technology investments over the last three years including many in AI.

“Protecting the safety and security of our borders with reinforced tools and technology is essential to building Fortress Am-Can,” said Solicitor General Michael Kerzner. “Through Operation Deterrence, Ontario has stepped up at a critical time to support the federal government and international interests; but we need the federal government to also step up with stronger measures that will keep our borders and communities secure.”

“Our government is taking decisive steps to establish strong, fair and proactive security on both sides of the border,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “We need the federal government to act swiftly on the recommendations proposed today to ensure the safety of our workforce, the resilience of our businesses and the growth of our shared economy.”

To help America decouple from China, we recently announced enhancing and building out the integrated Am-Can energy and electricity grid, including nuclear energy, to encourage more exports of Canadian energy and electricity to the U.S. and by establishing a new Am-Can Critical Mineral Security Alliance that invests in and builds out American and Canadian critical mineral supply chains, including by significantly expanding Am-Can processing capacity.

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