Voluntary ArriveCAN Usage Low Despite Speedier Border Processing: CBSA

A smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app is seen in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini

The number of travellers who use ArriveCAN to submit their advance customs declaration when entering Canada has dropped 50 percent since the system stopped being mandatory for COVID-19 purposes last fall, says the border agency.

September 2022 was the last month ArriveCAN was mandatory to track the vaccination status and quarantine plans of travellers, with 31 percent of them submitting an advance declaration through the system.

After the government abandoned the mandatory usage in October, that number fell to 18.8 percent according to data from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) provided to The Epoch Times.

The number of travellers submitting an advance declaration fell further in November 2022 to 12 percent, but climbed back to 15 percent this February.

The service was initially only available at the airports in Vancouver, Toronto Pearson, and Montreal. It has now been expanded to Winnipeg, Halifax, Quebec City, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto Billy Bishop.

Travellers landing at Pearson have been using ArriveCAN at a higher rate over the last three months: 15.55 percent, compared to 13.82 percent in Vancouver in December; 16.1 percent, compared to 13.8 percent in Montreal in January; and 18.67 percent, compared to 14.7 percent in Montreal in February.

The CBSA is aiming to increase the digitization of the border and the usage of ArriveCAN and other new technologies.

People who refuse to adopt them are likely to face a more sluggish travel experience. CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy says travellers who file an advance declaration through ArriveCAN spend 30 percent less time at the kiosk.

Express lanes for ArriveCAN users have also been set up at some airports, she added.

ArriveCAN is currently only available at airports but will be expanded to land borders under an unspecified timeline.

“The CBSA expects that traveller uptake of this technology will continue to grow as availability increases and new features are added,” says Purdy.

“This is part of the CBSA’s Traveller Modernization efforts to deliver new digital tools and technologies to improve and expedite traveller experience without compromising the safety and security of our border.”

The new technologies being implemented by CBSA involve using facial recognition with applications, said Purdy, but she didn’t specify whether ArriveCAN will serve as the platform.

Global News has reported that this is the case.

This is taking place as Air Canada in February started implementing voluntary digital identification using facial recognition through the Air Canada app for select in-country flights.

Modernization

CBSA President Erin O’Gorman told the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on March 6 that consulting firm McKinsey & Company was hired to oversee digital transformation at her agency.

“The work on the ‘border of the future’ that stems from the second contract that was awarded to McKinsey relates to how we will be able to implement a digital experience for travellers,” she said.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino also testified that McKinsey has “informed some of the largest digital and organizational renewal efforts at the CBSA,” with three contracts for a total of $4,337,610 since 2016.

The government operations committee is currently studying the exponential increase in contracts awarded to McKinsey since the Liberals took power in 2015.