Ottawa's decision to end one-person shifts at border crossings is more important in New Brunswick than the decision to arm them, a union official said Thursday.

New Brunswick could have as many as 50 new border guards under a federal government plan that will end one-person shifts at rural crossings along the U.S. border.

Mike Walker, a spokesperson with the Customs Excise Union, said Ottawa's decision to arm officers is important, but he said doubling the number of guards is "huge" in this province.

'You really have to decide just how far you will go in performing your job because you don't have the security of having someone there to assist you.'-Mike Walker

Walker has worked alone at night, and he said it's intimidating when suspicious people are coming into the country.

"You really have to decide just how far you will go in performing your job because you don't have the security of having someone there to assist you," he said. "To have two people would totally change that picture just in terms of health and safety aspects."

Ottawa will begin arming 4,400 border guards next year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Thursday.

He also repeated a pledge from the federal budget to spend $101 million to hire 400 additional officers to double up at Canada-U.S. border crossings that only have a single officer on duty.

Though Walker said doubling the number of guards is the most important priority, he said that Ottawa needs to arm the officers, sooner rather than later.

He said the federal government would focus first on high-profile crossings such as Vancouver and Windsor, but the union is arguing that officers at all crossings should be armed at the same time.

Otherwise, he said, criminals would quickly learn which border stations to avoid.

"If they're armed at this location, but not 40 miles [65 kilometres] down the road … the officers at that unarmed crossing could be at potentially higher risk," said Walker.

Harper said the government would start providing arms to officers in 2007. He also said it will take 10 years before all border guards across Canada are armed.