U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 69 per cent drop in recent months in the number of encounters with migrants at the Canadian border in what it calls the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont and portions of New York’s border with Quebec and Ontario.

The RCMP says it’s looking to redeploy up to one-quarter of its eastern region workforce to areas considered an operational priority, including to the Canada-U.S. border.

Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday evening and had dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, days after Republican Trump had pledged to impose tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports after he is sworn in as president in January.