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Ministerial transition 2019: Minister's book
Overview

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Mandate, vision and authorities

Our mandate

The CBSA provides integrated border services that support national security and public safety priorities and facilitates the free flow of persons and goods, including animals and plants.

Our vision

An integrated border agency that is recognized for service excellence in ensuring Canada's security and prosperity.

Our authorities

The CBSA administers 10 principal acts, as well as statutory regulations and international agreements including the CBSA Act, Customs Act, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and others (Annex 4).

Where we work / Our footprint

Located all across Canada and abroad, the CBSA is one of the largest federal service providers, and the second largest law enforcement agency in Canada.

14,000 full-time equivalents (FTEs):

Percentage of FTEs by region:

Where we serve:

Results for Canadians (2018 to 2019)

Managing the flow of people and goods to support the economy

People (96.5 million travellers):

Goods:

Protecting Canadians, and Canadian agriculture and industry

How we achieve our results

The CBSA supports Canada's security and prosperity by:

Security

Safety and health

The economy and jobs

Our changing environment

Many more people on the move, more often

Evolving and diversifying commerce and trade

Increasing threat complexity

Focus going forward

Digital, secure and touchless. 4 core principles:

International partnerships

Key Examples of Issues and Opportunities:

Minister / Government priorities

Annex 1: Key partners / Stakeholders

Key federal partners

Local law enforcement

International partners

Annex 2: Industry / Non-government organizations / Other stakeholders

The CBSA also works closely with industry stakeholders through associations and non-government organizations on the design and evaluation of policies, work force, programs and services, including:

Annex 3: Our core business lines

Travellers
Facilitating the easy flow of admissible travellers into Canada while intercepting inadmissible travellers
Commercial and Trade
Facilitating the import and export of commercial goods, ensuring the compliance of trade chain partners and collecting duties and taxes on imported goods
Intelligence and Enforcement
Targeting, identifying, investigating and conducting enforcement actions against those who do not comply with border-related legislation
Strategic Policy
  • Creating evidence-based policy analysis, through strategic foresight and collaborative relationships both domestically and internationally
  • Integrating data analytics to drive better outcomes and decisions for the Agency
Internal Services
Supporting border management workforce and human resources, finance and infrastructure, information technology, transformation, and corporate processes

Annex 4: Legislative authorities

The CBSA administers and is charged with 90 acts, regulations and international agreements.

The principal acts governing the CBSA are:

Financial overview

Fiscal year 2019 to 2020 Main Estimates

The CBSA received $2,127.2 million through the fiscal year 2019 to 2020 Main Estimates process. This represents a $316.9 million net increase (including employee benefit plans) or 17.5% more than the previous fiscal year.

The CBSA's net increase of $316.9 million represents an increase of $108.2 million in operating funding, an increase of $20.1 million in statutory expenditures (employee benefit plan), and a decrease of $73.2 million in capital funding. It also includes an increase of $261.8 million for measures announced in Budget 2019.

The funding breakdown is as follows:

Budget 2019

In total, $1.26 Billion over 5 years (2019-20 to 2023-24) for the CBSA was announced through Budget 2019 for the following:

Sustainability funding for current operations:

$325 million over 5 years to sustain and begin to modernize Canada's border operations. This includes a 2 year extension of operational integrity funding ending in 2021 required to provide stability for the Agency's work, as well as some funding for border modernization.

$440 million over 5 years in repurposed funding that will support the modernization of up to 24 land border ports of entry across Canada.

Traveller facilitation:

$30 million over 2 years to help travellers visit Canada. This investment will ensure the CBSA is equipped to handle the increase in visitors, students and workers who enter Canada while protecting the safety and security of Canadians.

Customs, Commercial and Trade facilitation:

$32 million over 5 years to help mitigate the risk associated with African Swine Fever (ASF). This investment will increase the number of detector dogs deployed across the country to help address the challenge of ASF.

Intelligence and enforcement activities:

$382 million over 5 years to support effective border management and enforcement. This investment is part of the $1.18 billion proposed for the government overall to help increase asylum system capacity, strengthen processes at the border, accelerate processing of claims and removals, and provide for new authorities under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to better manage, discourage and prevent irregular asylum seekers.

$28 million over 4 years to help strengthen Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. The CBSA will create a multi-disciplinary Trade Fraud and Trade-Based Money Laundering Centre of Expertise, which will strengthen the Agency's capacity to target these growing threats.

$10 million over 5 years to help protect people from unscrupulous immigration consultants. This investment aims to strengthen compliance and enforcement measures to protect the rights of newcomers and other applicants.

In addition, the Agency also received $7.2 million over 5 years from 2019-20 to 2023-24, and $1.8 million ongoing for CBSA activities related to immigration through the annual Immigration Level Plan funding proposal.

Advice to minister

As of , the CBSA has obtained relevant Treasury Board (TB) authorities for 6 of the initiatives ($743 million in funding over 5 years) provisioned in Budget 2019. [redacted]

Budget 2019 provided funding to support a new complaints review body. The CBSA was allotted $11 million over 5 years to enhance its capacity to coordinate activities with the expansion of the RCMP's external review body, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, and to continue to manage complaints through its internal recourse mechanism.

Despite receiving all-party support, Bill C-98, An Act to amend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act and the Canada Border Services Agency Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, did not complete the legislative process before the writ dropped on . The funding for this external review body remains in the fiscal framework as Budget 2019 did not put any conditions on the funding. [redacted]

The CBSA also received $1.1 million over 5 years for the monitoring and remediation of 2 contaminated sites at ports of entry in British Columbia, under the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan.

Work is underway to prepare a Budget 2020 request for a select number of modernization initiatives for your consideration. [redacted]

The Delegation of Financial Signing Authorities Instrument will follow in the first 100 days for your signature.

Ministerial legislative authorities

Overview

To provide a breakdown of legislative authorities under the CBSA mandate that rest exclusively with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (hereafter referred to as "the Minister") or with the President of the CBSA.

Background

While the CBSA administers more than 90 acts, regulations, and international agreements, many are on behalf of other federal departments and agencies, the provinces and the territories. Most of the day-to-day functions and duties found in the CBSA program legislation have been delegated and designated by the Minister and/or President of the Agency to the Vice-President level and below. The delegation and designation of ministerial and presidential legislative authorities is common practice across the Government of Canada, and includes cases where ministers share legislative responsibilities. Read more about these instruments.

A Delegations and Designations (D&D) Instrument is a document in which the Minister or the President either delegate to particular officials or classes of officials the various specific statutory powers, duties, and authorities expressly conferred on the Minister or the President, or designate which particular officials or classes of officials may exercise the various specific statutory powers, duties and authorities expressly conferred on officers. The CBSA D&D Instruments contain the vast majority of the Ministerial and Presidential legislative authorities. The D&D Instruments provide clarity as to who may perform the various functions set out in the legislation and therefore provide greater certainty that a decision or an authority is being exercised lawfully.

Some of the CBSA's key pieces of legislation are the Canada Border Services Agency Act (CBSA Act), the Customs Act, the Customs Tariff Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA), and the Special Import Measures Act. An explanation of the authorities under these acts follows in the section below. To fulfill its mandate, legislative authorities are enforced by Border Services Officers on the front-line.

Considerations

The Canada Border Services Agency Act

The CBSA Act, which establishes the Agency, came into force on , and defines "program legislation" that the CBSA is responsible for administering and enforcing to more accurately capture the significance of the CBSA Act provisions.

Below information highlights of differences between the Ministerial and Presidential responsibilities regarding the Agency under this Act:

Minister's responsibilities

6(1) Responsibility for the CBSA.

6(2) Authority to delegate to any person any power, duty or function conferred on the Minister under this Act or under the program legislation.

Does not apply if an Act of Parliament, other than the CBSA Act, authorizes the Minister to delegate the power, duty or function. For example, IRPA includes a clause related to delegation of ministerial powers. As such, subsection 6(2) cannot be used – the specific clause of the IRPA must be cited instead.
Also does not apply in respect of a power to make regulations, as per subsection 6(4).

President's responsibilities

8(1) Authority for the control and management of the Agency and all matters connected with it, under the direction of the Minister.

12 Provides that the Agency may exercise the powers, and shall perform the duties and functions, relating to the program legislation that are given to the Minister, subject to any directions given by the Minister and subject to any designations or delegations that may be applicable.

9(1) Authority to delegate any power, duty or function for which the President is authorized to exercise or perform under the CBSA Act or under any other enactment.

9(2) Authority to designate officers to perform various duties and functions under the Customs Act.

Includes the authority to designate persons as inspectors, veterinary inspectors or other officers for the enforcement of any act or instrument made under that Act that the Minister, the Agency, the President or an employee of the Agency is authorized to enforce.

9(3) Authority to exercise any power that the Minister has to designate officers under subsection 6(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

The President approves most of CBSA's D&D Instruments, with the exception of the IRPA D&D Instrument. This is permitted by section 12 of the CBSA Act, wherein the President of the Agency is legally entitled to assume the powers granted to the Minister described in any of the acts that meet the definition of "program legislation"; this includes the Minister's authority to make D&D. The President is asked to approve the D&D to allow for more flexibility and to respond expeditiously to the ongoing operational requirements to designate new officers or officers with new designated duties.

The Customs Act

The Customs Act is one of the primary pieces of legislation that the CBSA administers and enforces. It deals mostly with the presentation of persons and reporting of goods upon their arrival in or departure from Canada. Among other things, it sets out the legislative authority to control the importation and exportation of goods. The Customs Act gives CBSA officers the authority to, for example, search persons, examine imported or exported goods, and detain or seize goods in cases of non-compliance.

Section 2 of the Customs Act is noteworthy because it deals with delegations. In particular, subsection 2(3) provides that the powers, duties, and functions of the President of the CBSA may be exercised or performed by any person authorized by the President. Subsection 2(4) allows the Minister to delegate any of the Minister's duties under the Customs Act, including judicial or quasi-judicial functions (for example, according to section 131 of the Customs Act, the Minister has the authority to consider and weigh the circumstances of particular cases – such as the seizures of goods or conveyances – and decide whether the Act or the regulations were contravened). Section 9(2)(a) of the CBSA Act provides the President with the authority to designate officers for purposes of the Customs Act, and to specify which powers or duties such officers may exercise. These delegations and designations are captured in the Customs Act Instrument.

In total, there are 6 non-delegated authorities of the Minister under the Customs Act, as well as 3 non-delegated authorities of the President. These authorities are exercised infrequently and under specific circumstances.

Authorities that are not delegated by the Minister

2(4) The Minister may authorize an officer or a class of officers to exercise powers or perform duties of the Minister, including any judicial or quasi-judicial powers or duties of the Minister, under this Act.

11.6(1) Authority to designate as a mixed-traffic corridor a portion of a roadway or other access way.

(2) Authority to amend, cancel or reinstate at any time a designation made under this section.

97.211(1)(b) The Minister of National Revenue is responsible for the administration of Part V.1 of the Act ("Collections"). In order to facilitate the administration of this part of the Act, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness may, in conjunction with the Minister of National Revenue, recommend that the Governor in Council authorize the Minister of National Revenue to exercise any other powers that are conferred under any provision of the Act (that is, in addition to the powers already granted to the Minister of National revenue under Part V.1). Such an authorization would occur by Order in Council. To date, such an Order in Council has never been made.

106(3) Where, in any action or judicial proceeding taken otherwise than under this Act, substantially the same facts are at issue as those that are at issue in an action or proceeding under this Act, the Minister may file a stay of proceedings with the body before whom that action or judicial proceeding is taken, and thereupon the proceedings before that body are stayed pending final determination of the outcome of the action or proceeding under this Act.

147.1(3) The Minister and the Canada Post Corporation may enter into an agreement in writing whereby the Minister authorizes the Corporation to collect, as agent of the Minister, duties in respect of mail and the Corporation agrees to collect the duties as agent of the Minister.

164(1.1) The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations for the purpose of the uniform interpretation, application and administration of a chapter or provision of an agreement set out in column 1 (NAFTA, CCFTA, etc.)

Authorities that are not delegated by the President

2(3) Any power, duty or function of the President under this Act may be exercised or performed by any person, or by any officer within a class of officers, authorized by the President to do so and, if so exercised or performed, is deemed to have been exercised or performed by the President.

68(1) In the case of an appeal to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, the President may appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal on any question of law.

70(1) Authority to refer to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal for its opinion any questions relating to the origin, tariff classification or value for duty of any goods or class of goods.

The Customs Tariff Act

The Customs Tariff is an Act concerning, amongst other things, the imposition of duties of customs and other charges, the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, and the relief against the imposition of certain duties of customs or other charges. The ministerial authorities relating to this Act are all delegated below the Vice-President level except all authorities to make Regulations. Only subsection 68(3) is not delegated below the President.

68(3) The President of the Canada Border Services Agency may relieve goods from payment of a surtax on agricultural goods imposed by an order if the President is of the opinion that
(a)  the goods were purchased for importation in the expectation in good faith that the surtax would not have applied to those goods; and
(b)  the goods were in transit to the purchaser in Canada.

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Citizenship Act

The responsibility for the administration and enforcement of IRPA is mainly divided between the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (CIC). Each minister has sole responsibility for some aspects of IRPA, while the 2 ministers share responsibilities for other sections of the Act.

The Minister of Public Safety's specific responsibilities under section 4(2) of this Act relate to examinations at ports of entry; the enforcement of this Act, including arrest, detention and removal; the establishment of policies respecting the enforcement of this Act and inadmissibility on grounds of security, organized criminality or violating human or international rights; or declarations referred to in section 42.1.

Subsection 6(2) of the IRPA states: "Anything that may be done by the Minister under this Act may be done by a person that the Minister authorizes in writing without proof of the authenticity of the authorization" [emphasis added]. As such, the Minister must personally sign any instruments delegating his powers, duties or functions per subsection 6(2) of the IRPA. The President retains the authority to make all designations not falling under the ambit of subsection 6(2).

Almost all authorities within IRPA are delegated to officers below the Vice-President level. There are 80 items of delegations and designations approved by the Minister in relation to the IRPA, which are included in the CBSA IRPA D&D Instrument. The Minister may not, however, delegate the powers conferred by subsection 20.1(1) (irregular arrivals), or subsection 42.1(1) or (2) (Ministerial relief) or 77(1) (security certificates) of the Act.These authorities are infrequently used and only in specific circumstances.

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration's is responsible for the administration of the Citizenship Act, including the responsibility for initiating proceedings to revoke an individual's citizenship. However, in some circumstances, the Minister of Public Safety may ask the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to seek a declaration that an individual subject to revocation proceedings is inadmissible pursuant to one of section 34 (security grounds), 35 (violating international or human rights) or 37 ( organized criminality) of the IRPA. The Minister of Public Safety has not delegated the authority to make such a request to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Such a declaration constitutes a removal order against the person under the IRPA; the removal order is a deportation order, and the CBSA would take the necessary steps to enforce the order. In this way, the CBSA would be responsible for the removal from Canada of an individual who had been stripped of citizenship under the Citizenship Act.

The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act

The principal objectives of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) are to combat both the laundering of proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorist activities, and to establish the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Authorities within this Act are shared between the Minister, the President and the Minister of Finance. Most authorities are delegated below the Vice-President level, with the exception of the following:

Minister

24.1(1) The Minister, or any officer delegated by the President for the purposes of this section, may, within 90 days after a seizure or an assessment of a penalty,
(a) cancel the seizure, or cancel or refund the penalty, if the Minister is satisfied that there was no contravention; or
(b) reduce the penalty or refund the excess amount of the penalty collected if there was a contravention but the Minister considers that there was an error with respect to the penalty assessed or collected, and that the penalty should be reduced.

38(1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister of Finance, may enter into an agreement or arrangement in writing with the government of a foreign state, or an institution or agency of that state, that has similar reporting requirements, whereby
(a) information set out in reports in respect of currency or monetary instruments imported into Canada from that state will be provided to a department, institution or agency of that state that has powers and duties similar to those of the CBSA in respect of the reporting of currency or monetary instruments; and
(b) information contained in reports in respect of currency or monetary instruments imported into that state from Canada will be provided to the CBSA.

38.1 The Minister, with the consent of the Minister of Finance, may enter into an agreement or arrangement in writing with the government of a foreign state, or an institution or agency of that state, that has powers and duties similar to those of the Canada Border Services Agency, whereby the Canada Border Services Agency may, if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that the information would be relevant to investigating or prosecuting a money laundering offence or a terrorist activity financing offence, provide information set out in a report to that government, institution or agency.

39(1) The Minister may authorize an officer or a class of officers to exercise powers or perform duties of the Minister, including any judicial or quasi-judicial powers or duties of the Minister, under this Part.

President

Previous authorizations did not delegate presidential authorities under section 24.1(1) of the PCMLTFA (with respect to corrective measures). This omission was not a deliberate choice, but rather an oversight. Proposed amendments to the Presidential instrument (expected to be routed for approval in 2020) includes the delegation of the President's section 24.1(1) authority.

38(1) Specifically delegated to the President

38.1 Specifically delegated to the President

39(2) The President may authorize an officer or a class of officers to exercise powers or perform duties of the President under this Part.

The Special Import Measures Act

The Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) is the primary legislation governing Canada's trade remedy system. Its objective is to provide for the application of duties to address situations where dumped and subsidized imports cause injury to domestic producers, and to help protect Canadian industry from these unfair trade practices. Authorities within this Act are shared between the Minister, the President, the Minister of Finance and the Minister for International Trade, specifically in the context of international treaties (for example, the North American Free Trade Agreement). The vast majority of the authorities not involving international treaties belong to the President and the authorities he or she delegates remain at a high level (Vice-President, Director General, Director). Very few authorities are delegated at officer level. 3 authorities belong to the Minister, and these were delegated to the President, as follows:

Special rules to determine export price

25(1) Where, in respect of goods sold to an importer in Canada,
(e) in any cases not provided for by paragraphs (c) and (d), the price determined in such manner as the Minister specifies.

Normal value and export price where information not available

29(1) Where, in the opinion of the President, sufficient information has not been furnished or is not available to enable the determination of normal value or export price as provided in sections 15 to 28, the normal value or export price, as the case may be, shall be determined in such manner as the Minister specifies.

Amount of subsidy

30.4 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the amount of subsidy in relation to any goods shall be determined in the prescribed manner.

Where no prescribed manner

(2) Where no manner of determining an amount of subsidy has been prescribed or, in the opinion of the President, sufficient information has not been provided or is not otherwise available to enable the determination of the amount of subsidy in the prescribed manner, the amount of subsidy shall, subject to subsection (3), be determined in such manner as the Minister may specify.

Next steps

The Agency has updated and amended some CBSA D&D Instruments in 2019. More updates are expected in 2020 to reflect the new organizational charts following the Functional Management Model under CBSA Renewal. Future briefings will be arranged as required.

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