Departmental Plan (2023 to 2024): Supplementary Information Table for Gender-based Analysis Plus

Institutional GBA Plus Capacity

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is committed to making Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) an integral part of its work to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and initiatives. GBA Plus is the tool used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors, including race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability. GBA Plus helps us to continually improve and attain better results for Canadians by being more responsive to specific needs and circumstances.

The Agency's GBA Plus Centre of Responsibility (CoR), which is housed within its Strategic Policy Branch, supports the implementation of the GBA Plus framework across the Agency, including increasing GBA Plus information resources, updating consultation processes, and providing strategic guidance on mainstreaming GBA Plus principles and considerations into common work practices, policies, programs, and operations. The GBA Plus CoR works closely with colleagues responsible for developing and reviewing Cabinet proposals, submissions to Treasury Board, and other significant initiatives in order to strengthen these proposals and their outcomes.

Also supporting the Agency's institutional GBA Plus capacity is its GBA Plus Champion, who is responsible for promoting the understanding and use of GBA Plus across the Agency, and for serving as the liaison at senior-level interdepartmental meetings and events.

The GBA Plus CoR also works closely with the Agency's Chief Data Office to help the Agency understand diverse experiences, identify impacts, and improve outcomes for different groups through its datasets. This year, the GBA Plus CoR will continue a GBA Plus data collection pilot project to better assess needs and identify gaps for different programs in order to develop a data collection plan through consultations with the GBA Plus CoR and the Chief Data Office.

GBA Plus is everyone's responsibility. It starts with CBSA senior officials being responsible for ensuring the ongoing implementation of GBA Plus across the Agency, while providing resources for employees to integrate GBA Plus and the principles of intersectionality into everyday work practices. CBSA employees will continue to be encouraged and supported to familiarize themselves with the GBA Plus process, which includes undertaking GBA Plus training.

Highlights of GBA Plus Results Reporting Capacity by Program

Border Management

Targeting

This program identifies people, goods and conveyances bound for Canada that may pose a threat to the safety and security of the country. Electronic pre-arrival information of people, goods and/or conveyances is used to perform risk assessments in advance of their arrival in Canada, in accordance with the Customs Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), and other government department legislation and regulations. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Intelligence Collection and Analysis

This program collects, interprets and analyzes information on people, goods and conveyances bound for or leaving Canada, enabling the CBSA and law enforcement partners to identify potential threats to national security. The program collects sufficient data to identify specific intelligence trends that guide targeting of high-risk entities.

As outlined in the CBSA's National Training Standards, the “Introduction to GBA Plus” and “GBA Plus: Applying Tools and Best Practices” training courses have become mandatory for both Intelligence Officers and Intelligence Analysts. This requirement recognizes that GBA Plus is key when considering data for analysis and when creating intelligence products for the Government of Canada's consumption. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Security Screening

This program is responsible for the screening of temporary and permanent resident applicants and refugee claimants who have been referred to the CBSA by an IRPA visa office abroad or in Canada, or from a CBSA port of entry. The CBSA provides recommendations under the IRPA related to serious organized crime, crimes against humanity, war crimes, terrorism, espionage, and subversion. The CBSA is responsible for providing a consolidated response to the decision-maker on the file in order to assist with a determination of admissibility. This is administered in conjunction with various partners, such as the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

This program has not been collecting data to enable monitoring/reporting of program impacts, but will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Traveller Facilitation and Compliance

This program involves a wide range of GBA Plus considerations, along with a wide array of traveller data collected, including by gender and other identity factors. Although policies may be applied equally to all travellers, they may have differential GBA Plus considerations and impacts by gender/diversity.

The CBSA's Travellers Branch is continuing with its implementation of the Government of Canada's Policy Direction to Modernize Sex and Gender Information Practices with a view to assessing the need for the continued collection, use and display of sex and gender information. Through implementation, the CBSA is committed to ensuring that its practices do not discriminate against people on the basis of their gender identity or expression.

Through efforts to address the recommendations of the recent evaluation of traveller processing through a GBA lens, the CBSA was able to assess program impacts, including those associated with policies affecting the traveller experience, such as policies surrounding examinations and general interactions with staff. Although policies are to be applied equally to all travellers, they may have unintended GBA Plus considerations and impacts influenced by gender/diversity considerations.

Commercial Facilitation and Compliance

This program collects commercial information and targeting takes place on entities, goods, routing of shipments, and other non-gender indicators. While the CBSA does not collect data related to GBA Plus on commercial goods, efforts are underway to develop a path forward to conduct a comprehensive analysis of current commercial programs, with a view to developing the expertise to assess and monitor existing commercial programs in the future. Future projects will benefit from a GBA Plus analysis as part of project development, planning and approval processes.

Trade Facilitation and Compliance

This program does not collect data related to GBA Plus on duties and taxes assessed; rather, the information collected and analyzed pertains to corporate profiles, goods, routing of shipments, and other non-gender indicators. Following the implementation of the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project, future trade facilitation and compliance projects (e.g., broker licensing reform) will benefit from a GBA Plus analysis as part of project development, planning and approval processes.

Anti-dumping and Countervailing

This program does not collect data related to GBA Plus on unfair trade practices that are investigated; rather, the information collected and analyzed pertains to market trends, trade patterns, and other non-gender indicators. Reforms to the anti-dumping program will benefit from a GBA Plus analysis as part of project development, planning and approval processes.

Trusted Traveller

This program seeks to simplify the border clearance process for pre-approved, low-risk travellers entering Canada. While the CBSA collects data from individuals to assess their program eligibility, this data is not currently utilized to assess program impacts on diverse population groups.

Trusted Trader

This program interacts with three types of clients crossing the border: commercial operators, conveyance owners, and cargo companies. Commercial operators are considered travellers, for which details on GBA Plus can be found under the Traveller Facilitation and Compliance and Trusted Traveller programs. Clients in the conveyance and cargo categories are corporate entities, not individuals. Management of the program is directed exclusively at corporate entities to ensure that they (and, by extension, their employees) are treated equally by the CBSA in its dealings with them, regardless of gender or other intersectional identity factors. That said, a thorough GBA Plus analysis of the program has not been conducted to examine whether the construct of the program itself introduces any barriers to participation.

The Trusted Trader program does not collect GBA Pus data in the context of its program management, but will develop a survey to be distributed to all program applicants for the purpose of better understanding whether the program limits the participation of clients whose employees, owners or customers are challenged by virtue of how their gender or other identity factors intersect with the program structure, assumptions or requirements. To maximize the opportunity for success in this approach, the program will engage GBA Plus expertise to draft and analyze the results of the survey and engage in discussions with counterparts in the United States to identify opportunities for modernizing program requirements on the basis of those results. The CBSA's Trusted Trader programs are developed cooperatively with similar programs in the United States to ensure seamless and integrated benefits for our shared priority clients.

Recourse

This program provides CBSA clients with a mechanism to seek an impartial review of CBSA decisions and to voice any feedback or complaints in accordance with policies and legislation administered by the CBSA. The CBSA will continue advancing efforts to assess whether data on intersecting identity factors can be collected when submissions are made to the program, in line with privacy obligations and in keeping with the Government of Canada's Policy Direction to Modernize Sex and Gender Information Practices.

Force Generation

This program comprises the recruitment, selection and development of CBSA officer trainees, which is the feeder pool for the border services officer (BSO) position. The program promotes gender balance while seeking to address critical workforce availability gaps and meet official languages requirements across the frontline workforce.

The CBSA collects data to identify program impacts by gender/diversity, and will continue to review the Officer Induction Model to improve recruitment, training and development activities. The CBSA will also continue to increase the number of women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities within the BSO workforce by setting targets for each new cohort that attends the Officer Induction Training Program, based on workforce availability statistics. In particular, the CBSA will continue to:

• Track, analyze and report on attrition rates for all candidates in the CBSA Officer Trainee – Developmental Program selection process, with a specific focus on candidates who are members of employment equity and equity-deserving groups, in order to help identify barriers; create strategies to eliminate barriers and mitigate workforce availability gaps; and support recruitment and outreach efforts.
• Track data related to recruitment and outreach activities to enable breakdown of events by region and target audience (e.g., employment equity groups, official languages, etc.).
• Deliver its 2022 to 2025 National Officer Recruitment and Outreach Strategy and accompanying action plan for the recruitment of BSOs. Key action items include identifying and reporting on common recruitment-related questions, concerns and issues; monitoring and tracking accommodation requests; continuing to create and build partnerships with stakeholders to increase the number of applications from employment equity and equity-deserving groups; promoting awareness and education; and exploring the impact of intersectionality between employment equity and equity-deserving groups.

Buildings and Equipment

This program continues to make progress on the GBA Plus non-gender-based washroom signage initiative for the Agency, with signage at CBSA-owned facilities expected to be completed this fiscal year. In addition, CBSA office modernization projects continue to be completed throughout the office portfolio. The design of these modernized workplaces embraces a GBA Plus approach in support of a barrier-free work environment, including height-adjustable desks, rooms with adjustable lights, wellness rooms (for those that need quiet areas for focus or prayer), and many other design elements to support GBA Plus objectives. Modernization projects in Ottawa and Toronto are expected to be completed this fiscal year.

Field Technology Support

This program is in the process of assessing its client demographics, with a view to working with the GBA Plus Centre of Responsibility to define areas where GBA Plus could be applied and to perform a GBA Plus analysis.

Border Enforcement

Immigration Investigations

This program investigates and reports, and, where appropriate, arrests and detains, foreign nationals and permanent residents in Canada who are or may be inadmissible to Canada as per the IRPA. The program collects data that can be disaggregated by gender, age and country of citizenship, but the ability to collect and report on other diversity factors is currently limited by IT system capabilities. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Detentions

This program manages individuals who have been detained under the IRPA, ensures appropriate detention conditions and facilities, and monitors the conditions of release of foreign nationals or permanent residents of Canada who are subject to conditions under the IRPA.

The program takes GBA Plus considerations into account throughout its operations. For example, to help address program impacts by gender/diversity, the CBSA maintains national detention standards that include provisions for the treatment of women, families and 2SLGBTQI+ persons. The program is working to further mainstream GBA Plus principles within its operations by updating policy documents to require a consideration of GBA Plus realities when making decisions. Along with available data on gender, age and country of citizenship, the program has initiated work to expand data collection capacity through an update to the National Case Management System. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Hearings

This program represents the Minister before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in admissibility hearings, detention reviews, and refugee determination proceedings. During hearings, procedural accommodations may be made for vulnerable persons, including intersectional identity considerations. The ability to collect data under this program is currently limited by IT system capabilities. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Removals

This program is mandated under the IRPA to remove foreign nationals found to be inadmissible as soon as possible. The program collects data that can be disaggregated by gender, age and country of citizenship, but the ability to collect and report on other diversity factors is currently limited by IT system capabilities. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.

Criminal Investigations

This program contributes to public safety, economic security and border integrity by investigating and pursuing the prosecution of travellers, importers, exporters or other persons who commit criminal offences against Canada's border-related legislation. All investigations and prosecutions are carried out in accordance with established criminal law standards and in compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Within the CBSA enforcement continuum, this program addresses the most severe contraventions and willful violations of border-related legislation that warrant criminal prosecution. The program focuses on investigating large and often complex smuggling and fraud schemes, and provides penal consequences (i.e., criminal record, jail term, court fines, and prohibitions) for such violations, along with a deterrent effect for the organizers of such schemes and for other travellers, importers and exporters.

The program collects data that can be disaggregated by gender, but the ability to collect and report on other diversity factors is currently limited by IT system capabilities. As outlined in the CBSA's National Training Standards, the “Introduction to GBA Plus” and “GBA Plus: Applying Tools and Best Practices” training courses are mandatory for Criminal Investigators. Additionally, to support awareness of GBA Plus considerations, including unconscious biases, there is a mandatory course for Criminal Investigators on the prevention of racial profiling. The program will work to improve its GBA Plus capacity as part of a multi-year performance measurement strategy.