Executive Vice-President's Transition Binder 2019
Prairie Region

Resource profile

Prairie Region is not planning to add full-time employees to our existing A-Base compliment. The only staffing actions will be due to attrition as we replace departing employees.

New hires have been requested under the staffing plan for the Removals Response Team Investment Proposal, which is pending approval (refer to Bids against FIMC Reserve). These have not been included above.

Mandate / Vision / Context

The Prairie Region is committed to being accountable for the management of our respective business and service delivery functions associated with the Travellers, Commercial and Trade, and Intelligence and Enforcement business lines. This will ensure the region:

• achieves better operational and service results
• receives value for money
• leverages technology and data; and
• sustains focus on the Border of the Future and Agency renewal initiatives (Gate-I and Gate-II)

The Prairie Region is accountable for evolving the Agency's vision linked to the broader CBSA Sustainability and Modernization Agenda for all service delivery functions. The Prairie Region will drive the Agency's culture shift and change management activities; manage people as our most important enabler; respect budget allocations; and achieve desired outcomes with performance indicators, as well as manage the internal service delivery towards improved efficiency and performance.

Through continued work on national enforcement priorities, business modernization and contributions to global security and commerce, the Prairie Region works vigilantly to keep our nation safe and make a difference to the lives of Canadians.

The Prairie Region continues to face challenges with officer recruitment and retention, particularly at our small remote ports. This may impact our capacity to achieve our mandate.

Risks, mitigation strategies and key milestones

Risk 1: Recruitment

The Prairie Region faces challenges to adequately staff our small remote ports. There is an insufficient number of OIDP seats to address the BSO gap. There are not enough candidates that have an interest in the Western provinces, and the intake and processing of candidates is not strategic or prioritized effectively.

Related improvement activity (if applicable)

• Developing local recruitment plans in areas that are difficult to staff
• Focus recruitment efforts on employment equity groups
• Reaching out to students and high schools to present career opportunities at CBSA, specifically BSO & SBSO
• Committed to building stronger relationships with First Nations communities in close proximity to the ports of entry to increase our Indigenous applicants for BSO & SBSO positions

Milestones and expected completion date
(or any other key measures that are used to measure success in the delivery of your mandate and activities)

• Local recruitment plans should be complete by June 2019
• High school outreach and activities will commence with the 2019 to 2020 school year
• The Region's relationship building with the First Nation communities is on going initiative

Risk 2: Retention

The Prairie Region faces challenges with retaining officers at our small remote ports. In most cases, as soon as the OIDPs arrive they submit their transfer paperwork, invoke accommodations and in some cases take Leave without Pay in an effort to get back to their home province (or area of preference).

Related improvement activity (if applicable)

• Development of a retention improvement strategy in order to attract more applicants that live in close proximity to local POE's
• Development of a mentorship program and welcome package for new recruits
• Identify recruits from local communities earlier in the process

Milestones and expected completion date
(or any other key measures that are used to measure success in the delivery of your mandate and activities)

• The retention improvement strategies are ongoing
• Plan is based on when selection processes are run for OITP so that actual numbers and goals can be reviewed and analysed

Risk 3: Staff availability for special assignments

As ports experience staffing shortages we are still required to send officers to postings such as seasonal land borders or Lacolle, QC during the busy summer period. This also impacts the Refugee Influx Processing Centre (RIPC) as it limits the availability of officers to be redeployed to the RIPC on assignment.

Related improvement activity (if applicable)

Utilizing the improvement strategies for both recruitment and retention sections, the region should be able to offer special assignments to officers as the pressures with resources should not be as challenging.

Milestones and expected completion date
(or any other key measures that are used to measure success in the delivery of your mandate and activities)

• Both strategies are ongoing
• By the end of 2020, hiring data will be reviewed and analyzed to determine if the resourcing pressures have lessened to allow for more opportunities and special assignment for officers

Improvement activities
Milestones and Expected Completion date
(or any other key measures that are used to measure success in the delivery of your mandate and activities)

Traveller facilitation and compliance

• Prairie Region is engaged with HQ Programs and Operations on a CBSA remote reporting version of the USCBP's ROAM (Reporting Offsite Arrivals Mobile) application (app)
• Southern Manitoba District has participated in preliminary conversations with HQ regarding a pilot for a remote reporting mobile application to facilitate reporting in the North West Angle

Intelligence collection and analysis

• Intelligence offices face challenges due to our large geographic demands
• Intelligence teams to focus on priorities and work collectively, while engaging the Intelligence Analysts
• A working model is being established (based off a Pacific region model) which is a MS Access database that links work to priorities

Immigration investigations

• Recent changes to the ability to use Entry/Exit data will assist the program line in reducing the inventory and focus more resources on higher priority files
• Improvements to data quality will assist the removals business line to ensure that enforcement activities align with the goals of the government
• Implementation of the Enforcement Case Officers in the region will support investigations to better reflect the priorities

Detentions

• Increased oversight will be implemented to enhance the monitoring of detention decisions
• Improvements to long-term detention tracking, implementation of a monthly pro-active assessment and consideration of possible alternatives to detention will allow for earlier assessments to ensure clients spend less (or no) time in detention
• Continued work on data quality by reviewing existing processes and implementing enhanced reporting and review mechanisms to ensure our data resources are reliable

Removals

• Focus on dedicating resources to data quality related to the removal inventory to ensure better efficiency, ensure resources are being utilized on the priorities, and better service is being provided to the stakeholders and the public
• A complex data clean up will be conducted in order to assist the Region with data quality allowing the business line to carry out more escorted and unescorted removals
• Focus on reviewing all available positions to the program line to carry out the business as effectively as possible which includes utilizing Enforcement Case Officers for the first time to assist the business
• As a result, Inland Enforcement Officers will carry out more enforcement duties and the Enforcement Case Officers will focus on low priorities that must also be addressed

Leveraging small and remote POEs

• The Prairie Region implemented a decentralized model for primary commercial processing in 2014. This model allows the Prairie Region to use existing resources more efficiently by shifting electronic commercial processing away from busy commercial offices to lower volume POEs
• The Prairie Region initiated a Warrant Review project in 2015. The intent of the project was to use existing resources at low volume POEs across the Prairie Region to review outstanding warrants for EIOD. The expectation was to free Inland Enforcement Officers to focus on priority enforcement actions.

International Events and Convention Services Program (IECSP)

In 2015, the IECSP was relocated from the Trade Operations in Winnipeg to small ports in the Region. The Conventions program is in place to provide international participants of events and trade shows with the information they require to help facilitate their entry into Canada. Officers are in touch with trade show and event organizers, consider all customs and immigration related aspects, and will provide the organizer with an informative letter detailing the information that they and their participants should know before arriving at the border.

Trade compliance

Over the next several months Trade Operations will work with Southern Manitoba District (SMD) on a plan to speak to validation errors on B3s. Training will be offered for both the BSOs and the importing public. Once an error is identified, the officers will be contacting the importers to address the issues. Continued collaboration to take place between Trade and SMD to move this initiative forward.

Fiscal year 2019 to 2020 staffing plan

Prairie Region is not planning to add FTE's to the existing A-Base compliment. Planned staffing actions are due to attrition and will only be to staff behind departing employees.

Note: 19 new hires have been requested for Q2 under the staffing plan for the Removals Response Team's New Investment Proposal, which has not yet been approved. (Refer to Initiative: Removals Response Team for details)

Procurement plan

Efficiency planning 1% to 2% savings

The following efficiencies could result is savings of $1.06M (1%):

• Rigorous Leave Management Policy
• Best Practices: Use of Overtime during peak periods
• Rigorous review of all planned staffing/proper assigning of attrition factors
• Reduction in travel cost through use of video conferencing technology

Potential impacts on the above actions:

• Less management oversight
• Inability to meet Agency priorities
• increased burn-out/sick leave which may cause delay in meeting service standards, including increase in border wait times, and fewer enforcement action
• Reduced employee moral due to dissatisfaction with leave approval
• Increase workloads for employees, causing stress

Bids against FIMC reserve

In Fiscal year 2018 to 2019, the Prairie Region was expected to remove 13% of the national inventory to assist the Agency to meet its target of 10,000 removals. As it is anticipated that removals will continue to be a priority in Fiscal year 2019 to 2020, along with an expected increase in the number of removals, the Prairie Region is seeking additional Vote 1 funding required to meet this priority.

The Prairie Region anticipates this to be a 3 year pressure based on an anticipated three year timeline for processing and litigation before immigration files reach the removal inventory. A similar funding request will be submitted in for Fiscal year 2020 to 2021 and Fiscal year 2021 to 2022.

Date modified:

2019-12-04