2021 to 2022 Main Estimates—Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security: 2020 to 2021 Supplementary Estimates (C) and 2021 to 2022 Main Estimates (March 24, 2021)

Irregular Migration and Integrity of Canada's Borders and Asylum System: $37.6 million

Overview

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) received funding to support security operations at the Canada-U.S border to enhance the Government of Canada’s capacity to process an increased number of asylum claimants, and implement measures to deter irregular migration.

It is currently assumed that federal partners, including the CBSA, are resourced to process up to 26,000 refugee claimants annually.

The arrival of unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants in 2017 imposed great challenges across the asylum system and government departments were required to redirect resources to address this challenge. These arrivals are particularly challenging as the number of asylum seekers entering Canada is unpredictable and is affected by numerous factors such as global migration patterns, political instability and conflict.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

(OPI) Reviewed by: Scott Harris, Vice-President, Intelligence and Enforcement Branch | Date: January 29, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Compensation adjustments : $9.5 million

Overview

The CBSA is receiving $9.5 million for compensation adjustments related to salary increases primarily from the renewal of four collective agreements in 2020-2021: the Education and Library Science (EB) Group, the Operation Services (SV) Group, the Program and Administration Services (PA) Group, the Technical Services (TC) Group.

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Postal Modernization Initiative: $8.3 million

Overview

Through the Postal Program, the CBSA is obligated to screen all incoming mail. To carry out this work, the CBSA has been co-located since 1992 in Canada Post Corporation (CPC) facilities (currently Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver). Driven by the need to address outdated infrastructure and systems, the CPC initiated their $1.9 billion Postal Transformation (PT) Project in 2006 to modernize the domestic and international postal network.

Budget 2012 provided the CBSA with funding for its own PMI, which had three key objectives: address identified security gaps; automate labour intensive rating activities; and fund the project through anticipated savings. At the time, the projected implementation dates for each of the CBSA Mail Centres were January 2014 (Vancouver), February 2015 (Toronto), and May 2015 (Montréal).

Since that time, the CPC has delayed implementation of the PMI at all three sites. Vancouver was implemented with only a slight delay from January 2014 to May 2014 Electronic data was introduced into the mail stream, wo new IT systems were implemented to support automated rating (for duties and taxes) and risk assessment functions were put in place to enhance postal processing. A new Pacific Processing Centre was also established.

The CBSA and CPC Presidents met in June 2017, in consideration of significant challenges the CPC experienced with modernization that stemmed from exponential growth in e-commerce. They agreed on a new timeline of 2019, to allow incorporation of lessons learned and initiate incremental improvements in Toronto and Montréal. This approach assisted the CBSA in leveraging its investments in the automated systems.

The CBSA is dependent on the CPC Postal Transformation Project for its own modernization plan for both Toronto and Montréal. CBSA activities are being completed in collaboration with the CPC as it provides information to the Agency on CPC’s ability to modernize their facilities.

A reprofile of remaining project funding was submitted and subsequently approved by the Department of Finance to move this funding to 2019-2020 so that the funds would be available when required. The CBSA has briefed Treasury Board Secretariat on the current status of the PMI and received their agreement to utilize the remaining funds for modernizing Toronto and Montréal.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

Activity 1 – Implement IT solutions POST and CDS in the two mail centres:

Activity includes: business requirement gathering, assessment, solution design, technical architecture, development, testing, training, deployment, change management and project management.

Activity 2 – Implement updated infrastructure in the two mail centres:

Activity includes: business requirement gathering, health and safety assessment, solution design reviews, testing, training, construction, demolition, change management and project management.

(OPI) Reviewed by: Peter Hill, Vice-President, Commercial and Trade Branch | January 27, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Base funding: $7.6 million

Overview

In order to properly align the Agency’s operating expenditure requirement for the fiscal year 2021-2022, a conversion from Personnel to Operating was requested. As a result of this conversion, the Vote 1 Operating has increased by 27% due to the corresponding Employee Benefit Plan adjustment, thus creating an increase of $7.6 million.

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Passenger Protect Program (PPP): $3.7 million

Overview

In 2020-2021, CBSA requested a reprofile request to move unused project funding to outward years of the project as a result of funding efficiencies found in the planning phase of the project, as well as project change requests that pushed the delivery of all air carrier compliance IT components out to FY 2021-2022.

Overall project expenditure authorities remain sufficient to deliver the project. The purpose of the funding reprofile request was to support the delivery of remaining IT components, fund potential COVID-19 related air carrier onboarding delays, and the development of possible IT system or infrastructure enhancements that would improve the reliability and availability of the Centralized Screening solution.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

(OPI) Reviewed by: Denis Vinette, Vice-President, Travellers Branch | February 11, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Integrated Cargo Security Initiative: Marine Container Examination Facilities (MCEF) project: $3.3 million

Overview

As a result of the 2011 Beyond the Border Action Plan, the MCEF project committed to construct two new MCEF as part of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) responsibilities under Section 6 of the Customs Act, to service the Port of Vancouver’s four container terminals, as well as the planned VFPA terminal expansion. The project consists of the following elements:

• Building of the new Tsawwassen Container Examination Facility (TCEF) at Roberts Bank to service container examinations from the Deltaport and Fraser Surrey terminals. This project is complete.
• Construction of a Fixed Large Scale Imaging (F-LSI) facility at the TCEF. This project is ongoing.
• Replacement of the current Burnaby MCEF through the construction of the MCEF at Burrard Inlet, to service container examinations from the Centerm and Vanterm terminals. This project is ongoing.
• Construction of a F-LSI facility at the Burrard Inlet MCEF. This project is ongoing.

Although the timelines and construction of the TCEF warehouse were initially delayed, , it became operational in June 2019. Delivery against the remaining MCEF project commitments has been challenged by the complexity in marine port administration, competing port infrastructure projects, and specific circumstances related to the status of the land on which the TCEF is situated.

Note: The MCEF Project was provided with an additional $7 million from a Department of Finance approved capital base reprofile in fiscal year 2021-2022, bringing the total funding allocation to $20.4 million.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

(OPI) Reviewed by: Peter Hill, Vice-President, Commercial and Trade Branch | January 27, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Modernizing Canada's Border Operations ($93.0 million)

Overview

CBSA Modernization is a suite of initiatives that encourages upstream compliance, applies data analytics, optimizes key Agency business processes, and increases automation to improve the Agency’s effectiveness. Modernizing Canada’s border operations would mean the Agency is able to balance border volumes, threats, service standards and costs through its two core responsibilities: border management and border enforcement. To modernize these two core responsibilities, the CBSA has identified the following investment opportunities:

• a) Enterprise Data Analytics – linking data sets to improve risk targeting in real time to help reduce the non-resultant referral rates and speed up the passage for low risk travellers and commercial shipments;
• b) Cost Recovery – to study opportunities for increased user fees and improve tax compliance for cross-border import/export transactions;
• c) Efficiency Program – to look for opportunities to improve processes and procedures to modernize the way the Agency does business, and
• d) Investment Planning – to fund operations of the unit in charge of the Agency’s assets and a 3-year Investment Plan designed to ensure that Agency has adequate and sufficient and modern assets in delivering on its mandate.

Specifically speaking, the funding of $21.0 million in 2021-2022 is part of a multi-year effort to support:

• Strengthened financial management inclusive of efforts towards efficiency in its business processes, continuous improvements in the planning and management of the CBSA’s investments in assets (inclusive of IT systems and custodial real property responsibilities) and an enhanced revenue generation over the fair collection of taxes and duties on imported goods ($7.0 million).
• Advances towards making the best use of technology, data and intelligence. As shown by international partners, a strengthened use of data analytics can help expedite the flow of legitimate goods and people at the border, and enhance the ability to identify cargo and travellers presenting risks to national security and public health ($14.0 million, an increase of $2.5 million in 2021-2022).
• To propose a path forward in CBSA’s cost recovery effort to put it firmly on a way to sustainability and to provide better value to the Government of Canada through better compliance and tax collection.

The reduction in funding is due to a Program Integrity (PI) envelope which was only approved for 2 years (2019-2020 and 2020-2021). This funding is required to maintain the stable baseline in the delivery of the Agency’s core responsibilities of border management and border enforcement. The agency received approval for ongoing funding in an off-cycle funding request and will seek to access it through a future Estimates request to Parliament.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

CBSA's Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM)

Overview

The CARM project, initiated in 2011, is redesigning the CBSA’s import information requirements, processes and systems to modernize and simplify the way it serves Canadians.

Following the implementation of CARM, import transactions will be low-touch, contactless, and in most cases able to be managed via online service offerings 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Three major CARM project milestones have been attained since the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) last provided approval for the project to proceed to the Implementation Stage in March 2019:

• 1) The initial release was deployed on January 18, 2021.
• 2) CARM has completed the detailed design, build and test of Release 1 (R1), and CARM’s external portal is scheduled to be deployed in March 2021.
• 3) CARM has completed the detailed design for Release 2 (R2), final CARM release) and has moved into the build phase.

While the project scope has not changed, two notable changes to the project have occurred:

• 1. CARM will leverage cloud hosting rather than utilizing facilities from Shared Services Canada, which brings greater agility and end-to-end responsibility to the managed services provider. This strategy supports the Government of Canada’s IT Strategic Plan which requires departments to examine cloud options for business solutions. Pursuing a cloud computing model offers technical advantages that can increase business and IT agility, flexibility and performance.
• 2. Following initial implementation, Deloitte will run the solution as a managed service for five years, with ten, one-year extension options.

CARM is expected to be fully operational by September 2022.

*TB 2019 Submission includes $46.2 million obtained through the 2019-2020 Supplementary Estimates A exercise.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

Activity 1 - Business Transformation:

Business Transformation is concerned with making the fundamental changes in how the CBSA business is conducted in order to help manage the shift in the business environment produced by CARM.

Activity 2 - Innovation and Program Management:

Innovation and Program Management supports Canada’s overall program management, governance and innovation of the CARM project throughout the duration of the contract.

Activity 3 – Governance:

The CARM Governance function and structure ensures that strategic direction is provided, and that decisions are made, risks assessed and issues resolved in a timely manner.

Activity 4 - Privacy and Security:

The development and documentation of an access control policy that addresses purpose, scope, roles, responsibilities, management commitment, coordination among organizational entities, and compliance; as well as procedures to facilitate the implementation of the access control policy and associated access controls.

Activity 5 - Project Management and Oversight:

The overall responsibility for project management planning, execution, monitoring and control of all activities required for implementation of the CARM Phase 2 Solution.

Activity 6 - Solution Detailed Design:

The provision of a CARM Phase 2 Solution design that meets the CARM Project Objectives and requirements identified in the Statement Of Work and appendices.

Activity 7 - Solution Implementation/Hyper Care:

The stabilization period after a release launch, focusing on customer support, data integrity, and system stability. Hyper Care leverages the knowledge and experience of each work stream and requires coordination and collaboration between functional, technical, and security experts.

Activity 8 - Stakeholder Engagement/Change Management:

Stakeholder Engagement is the process which involves people who may be affected by the decisions CARM makes or can influence the implementation of the CARM decisions. Change management is the process of ensuring that CARM changes are thoroughly and smoothly implemented, and that the lasting benefits of change are achieved.

Activity 9 – Training:

Providing training of the CARM solution of all affected CARM users and personnel. It involves:

• a. the development of the training strategies;
• b. the design and development of the Training Program;
• c. The planning of all training tasks as described in the SOW;
• d. Performing testing of the Training Modules and content;
• e. Scheduling and pre-planning of translation requirements within existing GC translation service levels;
• f. Performing Quality Assurance of final training materials in English and French; and
• g. Delivering the training to Users in English and French.

Activity 10 - Managed Services:

Managed Services relate to the management of the CARM solution as a service, including the service management, ongoing support and operations of the CARM solution. This includes both application and infrastructure environments.

Activity 11 – Corporate Support:

Corporate support funding ensures that the CBSA has the resources required to support incremental efforts in the functions of audit, evaluation, contracting and procurement, corporate security, access to information, privacy and gender-based analysis. Corporate support assists the CBSA in carrying out national security priorities and facilitating the flow of people and goods across the border.

(OPI) Approved by: Peter Hill, Vice-President, Commercial and Trade Branch | January 27, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

National Immigration Detention Framework: ($19.6 million)

Overview

The implementation of the 2016 National Immigration Detention Framework (NIDF) will further improve the system by:

• expanding alternatives to detention;
• significantly improving conditions in holding centres;
• providing better medical and mental health services;
• reducing reliance on provincial facilities;
• strengthening partnerships with partners; and
• strengthening transparency through systemic publication of detention program statistics.

In 2018-19, the CBSA received approval for a reprofile of $26.9 million to future years to complete core deliverables, specifically the construction of the IHCs in BC and QC.

Funding associated with the ongoing maintenance and close out of the BC IHC was reprofiled to 2019-2020 to enable closure of the project upon completion of construction of the new facility in early 2020.

Funding associated with the QC IHC is reprofiled through to fiscal 2021-22 to support the construction of the new facility and close out of the existing inadequate facility. Delays with the QC project is attributed to a delay in the contract award for the consultants, as well as delays in contract award for construction, the planned project design and completed construction date. Many of the issues that created delays in the past have been resolved, including the identification and lease of the Laval plot of land from the Correctional Service of Canada, the environmental assessment and the hiring of the architect consultants to complete the plans for the Laval facility. The reprofile was required to redistribute the funding over the new baseline project schedule.

The project remains on track and the construction of the Laval IHC facility is expected to be completed by Summer 2021, while operationalization will take place in Fall 2021. The bulk of the NIDF funding was linked to the construction of the Laval and Surrey IHCs. With the completion of these two infrastructure projects, the decrease in funding is expected and in line with our original funding request.

If pressed:

Immigration detention has always been a measure of last resort, used only in limited circumstances, and only after alternatives to detention are first considered. Additionally, by leveraging alternatives to detention, the detention population has significantly declined from 353 persons on March 17, 2020 to 156 persons as of March 18, 2021. Of the 156 individuals in the detention population, 37% are in IHCs, 62% in provincial facilities, and 1% are in other facilities.

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

(OPI) Reviewed by: Scott Harris, Vice-President, Intelligence and Enforcement Branch | Date: January 29, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Employee Benefit Plan (EBP): ($16.0 million)

Overview

The statutory item "Employee Benefit Plans" includes costs to the government for the employer's matching contributions and payments to the Public Service Superannuation Plan, the Canada and the Quebec Pension Plans, Death Benefits and the Employment Insurance accounts.

EBP must be calculated at 27% of the Personnel and/or Personnel-Capital for all new initiatives to be included in the ARLU/Main Estimates. However, in finalizing the ARLU/Main Estimates, TBS generates a technical adjustment to bring the final EBP amount in line with the established rate for the current exercise. For the 2021-2022 ARLU, the EBP rate was established at 14.8%.

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Improving immigration client service, and helping travellers visit Canada (Temporary residents) : ($14.6 million)

Overview

Although Budget 2019 provided funding for the processing of approximately 400,000 Temporary Residents annually, IRCC projected twice this volume for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. This additional funding was requested to address the increased volume over a two-year span.

While volumes of travellers were reduced in 2020-2021, CBSA officers took on a significant role in processing individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in longer processing times and changes to the traditional manner in which officers processed visitors to Canada.

Breakdown of Funding for 2021-2022 : Not applicable

(OPI) Reviewed by: Denis Vinette, Vice-President, Travellers Branch | February 11, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Initiative to Take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence: ($13.5 million)

*Numbers may differ due to rounding

Activity 1 – Illicit Guns in Postal Facilities:

Investment in Dual View X-ray technology and Automated Threat Detection Software/Network at all International Postal Processing Facilities to allow the Agency to process all mail in a consistent, efficient, and non-intrusive manner. This technology will be implemented in the postal centres [Redacted].

Activity 2 – Detecting Firearms - Detector Dog Teams:

Continue the work being undertaken by the five newly trained firearms detector dog teams at select Ports of Entry.

Activity 3 – Construction and Maintenance of an All-Weather Facility:

To complete construction of the All Weather Facility to allow for year-round training of Detector Dog Teams.

Activity 4 – Transnational Organized Crime Threat Identification – Interpol:

Allotment currently frozen pending lifting of Treasury Board conditions.

Activity 5 – Advanced Vehicle Concealment Techniques Course:

Ongoing personnel, operations, and maintenance funding for the newly developed national training product to train in the identification and interdiction of crime guns and weapons for the CBSA and Public Safety partners.

Activity 6 – Air Cargo Security:

Expand use of handheld and pallet sized X-ray technology and Contraband (tool) Outfitted Mobile Examination Trucks (COMETs) into the Air mode at select major airports [Redacted]. Procurement of detection technology equipment will be undertaken, subject to the identification of a suitable procurement approach to address any national security risks.

(OPI) Reviewed by: Stephen Devries, Director, Commercial Compliance Division / Guns and Gangs HI, 613-954-6856 | January 26, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Border infrastructure: ($8.0 million)

Overview

As part of the Beyond the Border Action Plan, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) received funding to rebuild ports of entry (POE) in Emerson, Manitoba, Lacolle, Québec, Landsdowne, Ontario, and North Portal, Saskatchewan. These are the new or expanded CBSA facilities at key border crossings that have the highest commercial trade value, traffic volume and are in most urgent need of repair through the Major Border Crossing Infrastructure (MBI) initiative.

Three out of the four POE have been completed. Lacolle commercial is complete but the new traveller facilities remain outstanding. Lacolle’s delays are due to a change in designs based on input from the US, in order to align the designs with the US road layout. Lacolle traveller facilities will now be incorporated into the work of the Land Border Crossing Project. Contract awards are anticipated to begin in 2022-2023.

(OPI) Approved by: Scott Taymun, Director General, TBIR, FCMB | January 26, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

Entry/Exit Information System including Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID): ($4.9 million)

Overview

Entry/Exit will enable the Government of Canada to know when an individual has entered or left the country. This will allow Canada to identify individuals overstaying their authorized period of stay, those who fail to meet their permanent residency obligations, persons subject to removal orders who have left the country. It will also enhance law enforcement, national security program integrity through lawful information sharing.

Activity 1: EXIS

The Entry/Exit information system (EXIS) allows the CBSA to collect, analyze, use, store and disclose entry and exit information on all travellers. This funding is to maintain the air exit solution (a data acquisition system to receive and process traveller exit data) and IT system requirement to collect and share traveller entry records with the United States.

Activity 2: Connectivity

This funding is to maintain the connectivity technology requirements that increased the network connectivity at selected Ports of Entry (POEs) to permit the installation of the IPIL application and the deployment handheld devices. The CBSA has a contract with SSC to provide connectivity services.

Activity 3: Licence Plate Readers

The funding is for the capital replacement of the Licence Plate Readers installed as part of the Entry/Exit project.

Activity 4: Handhelds

The funding is for the capital replacement of the handheld devices deployed as part of the Entry/Exit project.

Activity 5: RFID

The funding is for the capital replacement and maintenance of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that allows more accurate capture of traveller information and faster processing to reduce border wait times.

(OPI) Reviewed by: Denis Vinette, Vice-President, Travellers Branch | February 11, 2021

Financials Reviewed by: Andrew Francis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer & Director General Resource Management | Date: February 1, 2021

Financials Approved by: Jonathan Moor, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Management Branch | Date: February 19, 2021

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