After high-profile border patrol rollout, Alberta spends just a third of team's planned first-year budget

Just a year after the Alberta government made a big splash unveiling its new border security team to the public with an announced $29-million investment, its latest budget shows the province only spent a third of the total it earmarked for the work over its first year.

Last year’s fiscal plan budgeted $15 million toward the Alberta Border Security Initiative to get the team off the ground. But the province's new budget estimates it spent just $5 million.

The first year for the Interdiction Patrol Team (IPT) focused on deploying officers, while establishing patrols and operational capacity, said Sheena Campbell, a spokesperson for Alberta's Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services.

“As implementation progressed, some planned expenditures, including hiring to full complement and certain equipment and infrastructure costs, occurred later than originally forecast,” Campbell told CBC News via email. 

Under the command of the Alberta Sheriffs, the IPT was created to combat drug smuggling, gun trafficking and illegal border crossings. 

The team was announced in December 2024, shortly after then U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs on Canadian goods unless Canada stemmed what he claimed was a tide of illegal immigration and drugs flowing into his country.

Last year's fiscal plan promised $25 million spent across two years on border security, to support buying equipment and developing facilities. The province still plans to invest the same amount, but now plans to spread it out over an additional year, including $9 million earmarked for the upcoming year and $11 million in 2027-28.

A government underspending its budget isn’t unusual, said Christian Leuprecht, a national security expert at the Royal Military College of Canada. Ramping up staff and equipment can take longer than expected, and he noted the province distributing its $25-million investment across an extra year reflects the steep learning curve that comes with border security.

But he added it could also show the province is finding that the role it can play in a space typically monitored by federal agencies is important but limited.

"So, government could have lost interest, or it could also be a reflection of it just not being as big a priority as initially everybody thought this was going to be,” said Leuprecht.

"Now we're finding an equilibrium where everybody’s realizing that, yes there is a role that probably the province should have played much earlier with the border, but it’s a limited role.”

Campbell added the province’s spending is also affected by some equipment, such as fleet vehicles, taking longer to arrive, and minor office renovations that are still underway with funding held until they’re completed.

Early last year, other provinces like Ontario and Saskatchewan similarly announced increased border security efforts.

Initially, Alberta announced the IPT would include 51 officers, as well as additional staff, patrol dogs and surveillance drones.