Ontario PCs will provide new tools, authorities and resources to crack down on illicit drugs and illegal cross-border activity
Niagara-on-the-Lake, February 8, 2025 — Today, Doug Ford detailed the PC plan to protect Ontario’s borders and keep our communities safe, including new helicopters and additional technology to detect, disrupt and deter illegal cross-border activity. These measures build on Operation Deterrence, launched earlier this year, to increase security at the border and crack down on the cross-border trade in fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
“With President Trump’s tariff threats continuing to loom over Ontario workers and businesses, and fentanyl continuing to hurt too many families and communities, we need to take real, tangible action to protect our borders and communities,” said Doug Ford. “Today’s measures are a serious commitment from our Ontario PC team to fight illegal drugs and crack down on illegal cross-border activity. I urge the federal government to continue stepping up its efforts, not just to avoid tariffs, but because it’s the right thing to do for our country and our communities.”
A re-elected PC government will protect Ontario borders and communities by:
- Investing $50 million to expand the Ontario Provincial Police’s (OPP) Joint-Air Support Unit with two additional H-135 helicopters to support the Niagara Regional Police and the Windsor Police Service with increased patrols, security and enforcement at key border entry points for the province. The Joint-Air Support Unit was created by the PC government through a $134 million investment in last year’s budget, with new police helicopters to help police in Ottawa, Toronto, Durham, Halton and Peel fight auto theft and combat organized crime.
- Continuing to invest in Operation Deterrence, which was launched in January 2025 as a partnership between the OPP and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to crack down on illegal border crossings and illegal drugs and guns. Since Operation Deterrence was launched, the OPP’s emergency response team of 200 officers has helped conduct thousands of hours of focused patrols using fixed-wing aircrafts, helicopters, boats and more.
- Supporting strict and severe mandatory minimum sentences for criminals convicted of drug trafficking, while ensuring landlords are held liable for knowingly hosting illicit drug production and trafficking sites.
- Working with the federal government to ensure the RCMP, regional and local law enforcement have the necessary resources to detect and address money laundering and other financial crimes by cartels and organized crime, including by empowering financial regulators to audit banks, credit unions and other relevant financial institutions for money laundering or financing drug cartels.
- Working with the federal government to enact new authorities for the RCMP, border agents and regional and local law enforcement to identify, detect and confiscate pill presses, precursor chemicals and lab equipment if law enforcement determine that the intent is to produce fentanyl or other illicit drugs.
- Increase inspections of all point-of-origin containers at shipping yards, ports, rail yards and airports from China, the frequent source of fentanyl and other illicit drugs that are plaguing Canadian and American communities.
Only Doug Ford has a plan to protect Ontario:
- Building Ontario’s economy by investing more than $200 billion in our plan to build roads, highways, transit and other infrastructure projects while investing $2.5 billion to train more than one million people for better jobs and bigger paycheques in the skilled trades.
- Protecting workers in the face of President Trump’s tariffs by doing whatever is necessary to protect people’s livelihoods, including by investing tens of billions of dollars to keep people working.
- Keeping us competitive by fighting the job-killing Liberal carbon tax and urging the federal government to cut red tape and streamline approvals to get big things built.
- Cleaning up our streets by protecting families and children by banning drug injection sites near schools and daycares and clearing out encampments from public parks with new investments in shelters.
- Delivering better care, including by investing $1.8 billion more to connect everyone in Ontario to a family doctor and primary care.
Doug Ford will never stop working to protect Ontario.
Media Contact: