Stockwell Day said that for every person who illegally crosses the U.S.-Canada border, there are thousands who are caught, after a report accusing border security of being weak was presented to U.S. Congress on Thursday.
"You will read from time to time about someone who has been able to get, when they thought nobody was looking, across the thousands and thousands of kilometres of border," Canada's Public Safety Minister said in Edmonton.
"What you didn't read about are the 21,000 people last year who didn't make it, who tried at various points, either at official border points or unofficial border points."
The 13-page report was presented by investigators with the independent Government Accountability Office who smuggled fake weapon components from Canada into the U.S.
It suggested that the border was porous and dangerous to the country.
"The northern border is a significant threat as a terrorist point of entry," said Ken Luongo, Executive Director of the Partnership for Global Security.
The report comes after GAO officers were sent out with large red duffel bags, containing simulated nuclear weapons and other contraband, to try transferring them at unmonitored and unfenced points between the two countries.
They succeeded three out of four times.
U.S. politicians used the report as an excuse to point the finger at Canada's weak security.
"Say I'm in Canada and I want to make a dirty bomb. How easily can I do so?" said U.S. Senate Finance Comm. Chair Max Baucus
Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) demanded tighter security along the border.
"With the possible exception of the United States, there are more international terrorist organizations active in Canada than anywhere else in the world," said Salazar.
Day said that in the last 19 months, Canada has put $431 million towards improving infrastructure at border points and $19.5 million to expanding integrated border teams, hiring 400 officers.
"No country is immune to terrorism, but I can tell you with the increased resources, both on the dollar side, the technology side and the personnel side, we're safer than we were a year and a half ago," he said.
However, investigators said they found that with a little ingenuity the border could easily be penetrated.
"Our work shows that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.-Canada border at any of the locations we investigated," the GAO report concluded.
As of May 2007, there were 972 American border guards and customs officers patrolling the divide stateside while the U.S. employed nearly 12,000 agents along its southern border with Mexico, Baucus said on Thursday during a hearing on the report's findings.
"The GOA investigation found this raised serious questions about the balance of resources on both borders," Baucus said.
Canada doing its part: Harper
Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to the report Thursday saying that Canada is doing its part in maintaining border security by making "significant investments both in processes and people."
"As you know, these particular materials were emitted through American security on the American side of the border," Harper said in Toronto.
"But obviously we have to be concerned. We work hand and glove with American authorities dealing with any kind of threats or potential threats, and I think American officials will tell you that."
Four spots in northern states along the 8,000-kilometre border were tested, though they were not identified in the report.
At one site, investigators conducted a 10-minute exercise, setting up a cross-border exchange of the duffel bag.
The exercise was recorded and photographed by GAO investigators.
In that instance, a resident of the area became suspicious and alerted border officials that something suspicious was taking place.
Authorities were called to the scene but were unable to find the GAO investigators.
"It's so hard to believe there's been so little progress in plugging these gaping security holes," Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said during Thursday's hearing. "They're simply wide open, waiting to be crossed by anyone carrying anything, even a dirty bomb or a suitcase-type nuclear device."
Last year's GAO border test found authorities failed to catch 93 per cent of GAO investigators entering the U.S. with fake documents, Grassley said.
"Last year we learned that our check points were vulnerable to fake documents and this year, we're going to hear that the areas between the check points are as vulnerable as ever." Grassley said.
It is illegal to cross the border anywhere other than an official border entry point.
With reports from CTV's Joy Malbon and The Associated Press in Washington
