Manitoba plans to send conservation officers to the international border to appease U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and attempt to defuse his trade tariff threats, Premier Wab Kinew announced Friday.

“Eyes on the border. Everyone has said we need a strong approach to border security here,” Kinew said.

“The federal government has announced potentially new resources coming with the RCMP. We’re saying, at the provincial level, we’re standing up a plan as well.

“This is a new direction we’re going in.”

Kinew made the surprise announcement during an event for the Christmas Cheer Board. He was asked about border security while answering reporters’ questions after the event.

Kinew couldn’t say how many officers will be part of the new plan, but said the government will roll out more details soon.

The usual job of conservation officers is to patrol and enforce the Wildlife Act in the province.

Kinew insisted the redeployment wouldn’t shortchange the Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures department — the umbrella under which conservation falls — of the officers.

“[We’ll be] making sure we have the COs in place to do the important work that they do during hunting season and the other jobs that would typically occupy their time,” he said.

Kinew’s announcement comes just over a week after Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico after he takes office in January, unless those countries stem the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders.

“We want to ensure that some of our law enforcement resources here in the province are supporting the broader border security effort,” Kinew said, adding that in addition to deterring crime, “there’s a strong humanitarian argument to be made” for the change.

He cited the deaths in January 2022 of a family from India. The Patel family — Jagdish, 39, Vaishaliben, 37, and their children, Dharmik, 3, and Vihangi, 11 — froze to death in Manitoba while trying to walk through a field into the U.S. 

Two men, who prosecutors argued were part of an international smuggling ring, were convicted last month on human smuggling charges in the case.

“We’re not saying we’re going to overstep any sort of jurisdictional issues — so you wouldn’t see a CO enforcing border law,” Kinew said.

They could step in in a humanitarian situation, but will “more likely just be that additional eyes and ears to report things to the RCMP or to the Canadian Border Services Agency,” he said.

“The idea is just to have more presence in the region, given the fact that our economic relationship with the U.S., which is so important, is going to rely on us saying, you know what, we are a trusted partner.”

Kinew also said if further steps are needed to ensure that jobs reliant on U.S. trade and the province’s economy are protected, “we’re moving in that direction.”