Issue/Source: Enhancing security requirements at Canadian ports to address emerging criminal threats
Location: National
Date: February 2026
Suggested Responses
- Protecting Canadian ports from criminal activities is a key priority for Transport Canada. The department works closely with port authorities, law enforcement, and security partners to review and enhance port security requirements.
- These joint efforts with port facilities and transportation partners are making our borders more secure, reducing the movement of illegal goods including fentanyl, and tackling auto-theft.
If Pressed
- Port authorities must develop and implement a security plan tailor-made to their operations. These plans identify the specific risks that could disrupt marine transportation or misuse Canada's transportation system, like organized criminal activity.
- Transport Canada regularly inspects Canada's ports, reviews their security plans, and collaborates with international partners to identify best practices in other jurisdictions that can be applied in Canada to address criminal risks.
Background Information
Canada’s ports are vital to the nation’s economy, handling over $400 billion in goods annually and serving as critical nodes in global supply chains. Given their importance, ports have increasingly become targets for organized crime, facilitating activities such as auto theft and the trafficking of illicit drugs such as fentanyl and its precursor chemicals.
Following a National Summit on Combatting Auto-Theft held in 2024, Transport Canada identified the Ports of Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax as being most at risk of infiltration by organized criminal actors and worked with their operators to update and re-certify their security plans, as needed, to address potential vulnerabilities.
Transport Canada is regularly collaborating with security partners and port authorities, through the National Port Security Committee, to advance and expand initiatives and best practices aimed at enhancing security procedures across Canadian ports. Working groups have been established, under this Committee, to improve collaboration and information sharing between security partners and ports.
In January 2025, Transport Canada initiated work to assess options for expanding requirements for persons in additional occupations and employed at additional ports and marine facilities to undergo a criminal background check and obtain a Transportation Security Clearance as a condition of employment for unescorted access to a restricted area to perform their duties.
Transport Canada held a 60-day public consultation on this issue, through its Let’s Talk Transportation online platform, that ended on March 31, 2025. Results from this consultation have been reviewed and discussions are underway with security partners to determine next steps on possibly expanding Transportation Security Clearance requirements to additional occupations and/or Canadian ports.
Transport Canada continues to work with domestic security partners, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Public Safety Canada, and the Privy Council Office, to coordinate with the Fentanyl Czar in identifying and mitigating criminal elements present in Canadian ports. This work seeks to address potential vulnerabilities in legislation and align operational approaches to hamper the movement of illicit goods such as fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into Canada's supply chain.
Work is also underway at multilateral fora and through bilateral engagements to identify and build off best practices and technologies employed by international partners to address criminal infiltration at ports and marine facilities, which could be applied within Canada.