The United States faced a real problem on September 12, 2001. They had a real security problem and they reacted. And they reacted by bolstering resources, by introducing new programs, and by introducing new technologies, without really thinking about long-term consequences on their relationship with Canada.
I was astounded to learn from one of the papers we commissioned for our project that the United States has sextupled the human resources on the Canada-U.S. border, which to me is a very threatening number and which indicates a lack of confidence by the United States in our ability to ensure that the border is handled not only as an economic border but also as a security border.
Now we've introduced quite a number of programs where we've worked together. We have a lot of people working together, for instance, at the Port of Halifax and at the Port of Vancouver, where we're looking toward ensuring that stuff coming from outside of North America enters North America and is safe. I think that's the kind of thing we need to do. We need to build confidence with the United States by building together not only institutions at the border where we're confident in each other but also on the perimeter. We need to make sure we do these things together, that we don't do them separately, along two separate paths with the result that we don't meet. I think we need to do it together, and we need to, first of all and foremost, build confidence in the United States that we will be a partner in ensuring not only that Canada is safe but that North America is safe.