Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to be here today.
My name is Pierre Sabourin, and I am the vice-president of the operations branch at the Canada Border Services Agency. I am joined by Peter Hill, director general for our post-border programs directorate, programs branch.
As the CBSA has not yet appeared before this particular group of members, I would like to take a few moments to talk about the agency's mandate and its roles and responsibilities in Canada's immigration process.
The CBSA was created in 2003, established in the wake of the September 11 events, to bring together elements of customs, immigration, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The agency's mandate is to provide integrated border services that support national security and safety priorities while facilitating the free flow of legitimate persons and goods. The CBSA has approximately 14,000 employees, including 7,300 uniformed staff across Canada. Our border services officers are designated peace officers, primarily enforcing customs and immigration-related legislation, in particular the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, as well as over 90 other acts of Parliament.
Each year, the agency processes approximately 93 million travellers, including 25 million air passengers. These travellers arrive at our borders as returning residents, visitors, refugees, settlers to this country, and of course those who should not be admitted. As the committee can appreciate, delivery of service on this scale is an immense undertaking.
With respect to this committee's study, the role the agency plays in the security of the immigration system is fundamental. Having assumed the port of entry and inland enforcement mandates and oversight of the overseas liaison officer program formerly held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada in 2003, the CBSA is responsible under IRPA for admitting individuals into Canada who meet the requirements under the law and for refusing entry to those who do not; for preventing people who are inadmissible or improperly documented from travelling to Canada; for referring refugee claims made at ports of entry to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada; for detaining individuals who pose a security risk or a danger to the public; and for removing inadmissible persons who have an enforceable removal order in effect.
In carrying out these responsibilities, the CBSA processed approximately 10,000 out of a total 25,000 refugee claims made in 2011. We detained almost 9,000 individuals who were deemed dangerous, flight risks, or who were unable to prove their identity. The agency refused entry to 54,000 inadmissible persons at the ports of entry and removed some 15,000 inadmissible persons from Canada, 1,800 of whom were removed on the basis of criminality or other security issues.
To meet the challenge of finding the right balance between border enforcement and facilitation in a shifting and dynamic global environment, the CBSA employs a layered approach to the variety of intelligence and enforcement activities it carries out. This approach is focused on risk mitigation and on leveraging resources with key partners such as CIC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In assessing risk before individuals depart for Canada, the CBSA undertakes intelligence and security screening activities to identify and intercept threats and inadmissible persons at the earliest opportunity.
The CBSA maintains a network of liaison officers to support its work abroad. Currently, the agency has 63 liaison officers in 49 key locations around the globe. The CBSA's liaison officers work closely with other government departments, foreign mission representatives, airlines, and host country officials. Some of their activities include interdiction, airline liaison and training, anti-fraud, intelligence gathering, and removals assistance.
The liaison officer program is successful from both a risk mitigation and service perspective. On an annual basis, liaison officers interdict over 4,000 improperly documented individuals, while facilitating approximately 2,000 legitimate travellers, the majority of whom are Canadians returning home after extended stays in a foreign country.
The CBSA undertakes the security screening of immigration applications at CIC's request. When CIC feels that an application may be of interest or concern based on security indicators, it is referred to the agency for a more detailed review. Once reviewed, the CBSA works with its security and intelligence partners to make a recommendation to CIC, with whom the decision to accept or refuse a case rests.
When travellers arrive at a port of entry, CBSA border service officers verify their travel documents and determine if all Canadian entry requirements have been met. Should someone be found inadmissible at that time, the appropriate enforcement action will be taken. In cases where individuals submit a claim for refugee protection, officers will conduct a preliminary interview and determine the eligibility of the claim. Eligible claims are then referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada for consideration.
To deal with individuals already in Canada who have been deemed inadmissible, the agency currently employs 409 inland enforcement officers. They carry out a broad range of activities, which include investigations, arrests, detentions and removals of individuals from the country. Individuals often go underground to avoid removal. The CBSA shares its information with its law enforcement partners in order to locate these individuals and enforce the removal order. In July 2011, our agency launched its “most wanted” pilot, in which we asked the public for assistance in locating certain individuals. That initiative has been quite successful, resulting in over 245 tip calls, 20 apprehensions and 13 removals to date in cases where our traditional investigative efforts had not produced results.
With the coming into force of the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the CBSA will play a key role in enhancing the integrity and efficiency of Canada's reformed refugee protection system. The CBSA will launch an assistant voluntary returns pilot program to increase the level of voluntary departures of failed refugee claimants. The program will also help make changes to tools, policies, regulations and procedures to support expedited processing of failed refugee claimants. That will also mean increased resources for criminal investigations in our liaison officer network to improve overseas interdictions and facilitate removals of persons seeking to defraud the refugee process.
However, despite all this good work, there are challenges we face in ensuring the security of our immigration system. To address those challenges, the CBSA has been pursuing opportunities to push the borders out through advance information gathering and risk assessment. These efforts also support our agency's priorities of facilitating and expediting legitimate travel for low-risk passengers. Among our priorities going forward is to increase access to biometric data in order to improve immigration and border determinations, establish and verify travellers' identities, and conduct security screenings at the earliest possible opportunity.
From a security perspective, biometrics is an important identification technology. The CBSA recognizes its importance and already uses it in its NEXUS program. As my colleague Ms. Deschênes remarked, the electronic travel authorization initiative will allow Canada to screen each applicant against a number of databases. That procedure will make it possible to conduct a risk assessment prior to a ticket to Canada even being purchased. Approval under both CIC and CBSA assessment processes will be required before an electronic travel authorization is granted.
Our agency also has an interactive advance passenger information initiative under way that will require air carriers to provide data to the CBSA prior to flight departure. Not only will this initiative allow the CBSA to verify the electronic travel authority status for third country nationals, it will enable us to conduct an initial risk assessment on all passengers, including a check against lost and stolen passport databases. We will also be able to deny boarding in advance of flight departure for reasons of admissibility status, health, safety and security.
Ms. Deschênes also noted that the CBSA is the Government of Canada lead on establishing an entry and exit system between Canada and the U.S., whereby entry into one country would establish exit from the other, essentially enabling us to close the loop on a visitor's travel history.
Once implemented, the system will assist us in identifying travellers who have willingly left the country, and in closing warrants accordingly. We will also be able to identify individuals who have stayed longer than authorized. Finally, the system will help us avoid issuing warrants for individuals who have overstayed or are subject to removal orders.
Following the implementation of these initiatives, the CBSA expects to see significant improvements in the way that we screen individuals before they even reach our borders.
With full implementation of the electronic travel authorization and the integrated advance passenger information initiatives, Canada will be able to greatly reduce the number of inadmissible people arriving at our ports of entry each year.
In addition, a fully operational entry-exit program will enable us to identify overstays and breaches of residency conditions and requirements.
Taken together, these future programs will ensure that Canada employs a modern, efficient and effective border management approach that protects the safety of Canadians and facilitates legitimate travel while safeguarding the integrity of our immigration processes.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My colleague and I look forward to answering your questions.
