Canada increases budget for international boundary commission

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Natural Resources Minister John Efford announced on January 7 that Canada has accepted the recommendation of an independent report to increase the annual budget of the Canadian Section of the International Boundary Commission to $2.4 million from the current $830,000.

The International Boundary Commission is a bilateral treaty organization that is jointly funded by Canada and the U.S. It was created by a 1908 treaty to mark, map and maintain the land and water boundary between Canada and the U.S., and to regulate any construction within three metres of the international boundary. The Commission was established as the permanent caretaker of the boundary area through the Treaty of Washington in 1925.

In 2003, the Canadian and U.S. commissioners jointly undertook an independent report to assess the state of maintenance of the boundary and to make recommendations to ensure “an effective boundary line” as called for in the treaties. The resulting report, dated February 2004, called on the Canadian government to increase the annual budget of the Canadian Section of the International Boundary Commission from the current $830,000 to $2.4 million for 2005-2006 to 2009-2010. The Canadian government will fully implement this recommendation.