Military didn't have capacity to clear Coutts, Alta. blockade "without significant risk": government doc

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The Canadian Armed Forces didn’t have the “assets” to safely help clear the blockade in Coutts, Alta. earlier this year, while the Alberta government had the authority to deal with the problem itself under provincial legislation, Public Safety Canada told the emergency preparedness minister.

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The briefing note was prepared by the department for Bill Blair in February, and obtained by the National Post through Access to Information. It was reacting to a letter from the Alberta government, asking for federal government help to clear the blockade at the border crossing in Coutts that began in support of the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.

Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver wrote to Blair and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Feb. 5, asking for equipment and personnel to move around 70 semi-tractor trailers and 75 personal and recreational vehicles. The letter said the RCMP had “exhausted all local and regional options to alleviate the week-long service disruptions at this important international border.”

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The Public Safety briefing note, dated Feb. 9, acknowledged that Alberta hadn’t been able to get private-sector tow truck operators in either the Western provinces or the United States to help, but said the federal government didn’t have the capacity to help either.

“This could be the result of private industry’s concerns about experiencing negative consequences should they assist with the removal of impediments,” the briefing note says.

It said that all “key partners” were “consulted on the ability of the Government of Canada to assist with this request.”
“Given the lack of commercial resources, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were identified as the only Federal asset that might potentially meet the request.”

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However, the briefing note said, “discussions with CAF have made it clear that the CAF possess neither the type of assets required nor the expertise to do this without significant risk.”

The briefing note for Blair said Alberta was able to handle the issue under provincial legislation, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of Alberta. “Alberta has the required legal authorities necessary to enforce compliance, as a highway is considered essential infrastructure,” it said.

The note said “this remains an issue within provincial jurisdiction.”

The briefing note, which was signed by deputy minister Rob Stewart Feb. 9, doesn’t mention the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, which happened days later, on Feb. 14. The Alberta government has been critical of that legislation – premier Jason Kenney said in February the province would challenge it in court, and in May Alberta was granted intervenor status in other court challenges of the federal government’s use of the legislation.

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Blair’s response to Alberta does point to the Emergencies Act, even though it’s dated Feb. 25, two days after the use of the Emergencies Act ended. “These measures provide the temporary authority to regulate, prohibit, and relieve blockades in designated areas such as borders and other critical infrastructure,” he told McIver, adding Alberta had to authority to deal with the blockade under the provincial Critical Infrastructure Defence Act.

CMP commissioner Branda Lucki told a parliamentary committee in May the RCMP “looked to the military as well and, in the end, what ended up happening was that the Government of Alberta purchased some tow trucks, which was just at the onset of the invocation of the Emergencies Act.”

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She also said the RCMP “did many inquiries in regard to the use of the Canadian Armed Forces,” but was told the military didn’t have the necessary equipment.

In his letter to Alberta, Blair said the government understands “you have already procured equipment to assist in the removal of vehicles involved in the blockade. The Government of Canada will assist in reimbursing Alberta for such purchases.”
Blair also promised to “work with you to help find operators and drivers.”

After the protests ended, a joint House of Commons and Senate committee was convened to look into the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act. Much of the attention on that committee’s recent work was focused on the public safety minister’s statement that government invoked the Emergencies Act based on the advice of police forces, but Lucki and interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell later said they never asked for the act to be invoked.

During the hearings, public safety deputy minister Stewart told the committee that Alberta’s request for help was declined “on the basis that Alberta hadn’t fully used its own access to resources and also because the equipment of the CAF was going to damage the trucks.”

He added that the military equipment was going to be “inappropriate and insufficient” given that what “we needed at the border at Coutts was dozens of tow trucks for hundreds of trucks.”