Canada Border Services Agency ‘Desperately Understaffed,’ Union President Testifies

A file photo of a CBSA officer removing a mattress that was used to hide a stolen vehicle in a container in Montreal on July 17, 2014. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) does not have the staff to properly deal with Canada’s worsening auto-theft crisis, much of which hinges on adequate security at the nation’s ports and borders, says the national head of the union representing CBSA personnel.

“We’re having a really hard time, and when I say that we’re desperately understaffed, we are desperately understaffed,” Customs and Immigration Union president Mark Weber testified at a Feb. 26 meeting of the Public Safety and National Security Committee (SECU).

“We’re essentially trying to fill 100 holes with 50 pegs all the time,” he added.

The committee met to examine the growing problem of car theft in Canada. Many of the cars stolen in Canada are exported abroad, with Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich testifying that an estimated 60 percent of vehicles are foreign-bound.

Those stolen cars leave Canada through its ports and borders, but Mr. Weber says the CBSA faces several obstacles in trying to mitigate the problem, including understaffing, inadequate technology, and lack of space to work.

“We only have one college; we cannot graduate or train even up to 600 new officers per year, which isn’t even covering attrition,” Mr. Weber said, adding the CBSA is short 2,000 to 3,000 staff and working with half the number of airport agents it had 10 years ago.

While the Tories have been critical of the Liberal government for the understaffing, Liberal MP Peter Schiefke turned the attention to the previous Conservative government by asking Mr. Weber what effect the Harper government’s cuts to the CBSA have had. Mr. Weber acknowledged those reductions but said nothing has been done since then to remedy the situation.

“Our numbers have not really gone up since; we’ve not seen the college or the CBSA have the capacity to get our numbers back to what they need to be,” he said.

Mr. Schiefke noted Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc recently announced $28 million in new funding to aid the CBSA in acquiring new technologies, and asked what more could be done.

“Technologies are only useful if you have the officers there to use the technology,” Mr. Weber responded.

“At the Port of Montreal again, specifically the issue right now is with space.”

Mr. Weber described the situation in Montreal, where CBSA officers have only six parking spots to hold stolen vehicles. It sometimes takes days before those cars can be moved to make room for more inspections, he said.

Switching the topic to CBSA internal issues, Conservative MP Glen Motz asked what could be done about the reported “disconnect” between the organization’s “upper echelon” and its frontline workers.

“I think the CBSA should look at promoting from within,” said Mr. Weber.

“So, you get people in positions where they can make decisions on how the border runs who’ve actually worked at the border previously.”