Tag Archives: understaffing

Stop illegal firearms: NDP commits to rehire 1,100-plus border officers

CIU members, including National President Mark Weber, joined federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on October 17, as the NPD announced a commitment to rehire 1,100 border officers in an effort to stop the flow of illegal firearms into the country.

“The men and women of the CIU can stop guns from entering this country. But because of Conservative cuts, ports of entry are chronically understaffed,” said Singh at the press conference in Toronto on Thursday. “The NDP will fight for 1,100 new border officers to be urgently hired and trained to replace the jobs Conservatives cut. If the Liberals continue to let people down, an NDP government will rehire those 1,100 border officers immediately and keep hiring and keep training.”

Read the NDP’s announcement here

Thanking Singh for his commitment to properly staff the border and support frontline border personnel, the CIU National President was clear: The reality at CBSA is bleak.  “Many of our members face exhaustion due to sustained understaffing” explained Weber. “Things desperately need to change at CBSA if we want to get serious about stopping illegal firearms: more frontline border personnel, expanded abilities for our border officers to patrol between ports of entry, improved training facilities, reliable tools that don’t break down, and even benefits in line with other law enforcement agencies to help with the workforce renewal.”

Mark Weber highlighted the positive commitment from the federal government to introduce pension reform for frontline personnel this fall, including border officers, which should help the Agency retain dedicated personnel and have a beneficial impact on the long-term. “That’s a first step” said Weber, “and there’s so much more work that needs to be done”, emphasizing the need for the Agency to stop relying on automated technology that only serves to make our border less secure, and hire officers to find the dangerous goods that threaten our communities.

Watch the full press conference on CPAC

“CBSA officers get in this line of work because they want to keep Canadians safe, and they deserve to be given every tool they need to be successful,” concluded Weber. “What we’re hearing today from the NDP is exactly the kind of support that we need.”

“We’re inundated with managers”: National President addresses Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Photo of CIU flag

On February 29 and March 5, 2024, CIU National President Mark Weber addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP) as part of the Committee’s work related to the Auditor General’s report on ArriveCAN.

In his opening statement on February 29, the National President did not mince words, highlighting CBSA management’s lack of accountability — along with its tendency to retaliate against employees and its arbitrary internal investigative and disciplinary processes — and noting that the “glaring disregard for basic management practices” uncovered by the Auditor General was far from a surprise for those acquainted with CBSA management.

“The situation within the Security and Professional Standards Directorate, responsible for internal investigations, is especially egregious, with the directorate showing little understanding of the basic principles of procedural fairness” said Mark Weber. “Reform is badly needed to ensure the integrity of a process that should be fair, transparent, and unbiased, and yet is anything but.”

At the subsequent meeting on March 5, the National President answered questions from Committee members, touching on a wide range of subjects, including CBSA’s focus on facilitation and automated technologies such as ArriveCAN, which undermines the security of Canadians by removing crucial interactions between officers and travellers.

Committee members also heard about the overly broad CBSA code of conduct, the two-tiered approach to discipline between officers and managers, and the perennial issue of understaffing, which CBSA exacerbates by hiring more and more managers instead of frontline officers. “We’re already inundated with managers at CBSA” told Weber to the Committee, highlighting that “you could go the next decade without hiring another manager and you’d likely still have too many”.

The overarching message to the Committee is clear: CBSA and the federal government must learn from the ArriveCAN debacle and seize this opportunity to change course. Canadians are owed an agency built on solid principles where the frontline is properly supported to ensure the security of all.

See selected clips below. A full recording of the Committee proceedings can be viewed here (February 29) and here (March 5) (with interpretation language options).