The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security is categorical: Border officers should be allowed to act between ports of entry!
This is just one of the many sweeping recommendations (27 in total) contained in a report recently released by the Committee. The report, which brings the Committee’s study on the management of the Canada-United States border to a close, touches on matters as diverse as operational capacity, infrastructure, recruitment, and even the very mandates of both CBSA and the RCMP.
Many of the Committees’ recommendations directly echo information provided by the Customs and Immigration Union, with CIU National President Mark Weber having been one of the first witnesses invited to participate in the study, last fall. In his testimony, the National President had made a number of suggestions on how to improve Canada’s borders operations, and it is clear that Committee members took note.
Read the report
Notably, Recommendation 1 of the report highlights the need for the Government of Canada to “add to the mandate of Canada Border Services Agency officers the power to patrol and intervene in the event of urgent situations outside official ports of entry at the Canada–United States border.” CIU has long advocated for border officers to be empowered to patrol between ports of entry, and we applaud the members of the Committee for recommending to expand the role of border officers in such a way.
The Committee does not stop there:
- Recommendation 4 urges the government to expand, modernize, and properly fund CBSA training facilities.
- Recommendation 5 highlights the need to strengthen frontline operations.
- Recommendation 6 proposes to boost “operational capacity by increasing the number of officers assigned to inspections to reduce excessive reliance on automated systems […] by retaining officers who are injured or require accommodation in order to preserve operational expertise.”
- Recommendation 7 would see the government “mandate [CBSA] to conduct a structural review of its organization to rebalance, in particular, the ratio of operational to administrative positions, where necessary, reducing the number of middle managers as necessary, and that this review include […] an independent assessment of practices related to accommodating and retaining injured or disabled employees, conducted in collaboration with the union.”
- Recommendation 8 brings to light the need for CBSA to “reduce its reliance on student border officers.”
The list goes on.
These recommendations touch on many of the core problems CIU has identified within CBSA over the years, and it is invigorating to see the Committee urge the federal government to explore these avenues of improvement.
While the report and its recommendations are non-binding, it does request a “comprehensive response” from the government. We can only hope the government will listen and do what is required to ensure strong, resilient, well-managed border services.
