Evidence of meeting #10 for Public Safety and National Security in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was security.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Are you aware of any submissions that were made from the RCMP to the Border Services Agency on this issue?
10:35 a.m.
D/Commr Raf Souccar
If I may, I'll just add a quick response to this.
I have a letter here, Mr. Chairman, addressed to you that I signed this morning, indicating that Assistant Commissioner Cabana was not accurate in his response to you with respect to contribution to the report. He consulted with Canada Border Services Agency and can confirm that neither the RCMP nor CBSA has either received or commented on the northern border strategy, which was recently requested by Secretary Napolitano.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Going back to the border guards issue, you're saying that the initial estimates, to the best of your knowledge, will not be exceeded. Is that correct?
10:35 a.m.
President, Canada Border Services Agency
To the best of my knowledge at this time, no, they will not be exceeded.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Do you have any internal reports showing why it would be preferable to arm border guards, as opposed to simply having RCMP officers increased at the border?
10:40 a.m.
President, Canada Border Services Agency
There may well be some documents around that. Those deliberations predated my time.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I'm sorry, your time is up, and I promised Ms. Mourani and maybe Mr. Comartin.
Go ahead, Ms. Mourani, or Monsieur Ménard. It's the Bloc Québécois turn.
10:40 a.m.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
Thank you very much.
I have a question for Mr. Souccar. Mr. Cabana, whom we met recently, said that it would be interesting to have ground patrols, and thus people on the ground patrolling the border.
What do you think of that? How much would that cost? How many patrollers do you think would be necessary?
10:40 a.m.
A/Commr Raf Souccar
The border patrol is definitely a possibility.
But it's very important that when we're talking about a border patrol, we're not simply talking about driving back and forth on the highway--as I always say, burning gas with no goal in mind. We operate very much on an intelligence-led basis, so we go where crime is, or we squeeze crime where we want it to go in order to be able to be there waiting for it. So if you're going to have a patrol along the border, the benefit of that is visibility and deterrence, as well as the other component that becomes very necessary when you do that, which is outreach to the community that lives along the border so that they can work together.
10:40 a.m.
D/Commr Raf Souccar
We have not done a study
to determine how much that would cost, but we are discussing the possibility of doing a trial at a specific location to verify that.
10:40 a.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
There's one final, very important subject that we were considering when we invited you both together. And that is trademarks.
A lot of people have reported that they have information to the effect that full containers are arriving from countries like China or from Asia and so on, and apparently nothing is being done. There's also talk about tobacco. It appears that Chinese tobacco is coming in by the container load. When people learn that, they're obviously very interested in reporting the situation.
Who do they contact? Do you in fact consider these reports? Because some people tell us they have alerted police or customs authorities that a container was arriving at such and such a port, on such and such a boat, and in those cases they were never intercepted. So where do they direct their complaints?
10:40 a.m.
D/Commr Raf Souccar
I think that CBSA and the RCMP work very closely together with respect to intellectual property rights, because merchandise will come through a port of entry or through a marine port or through an airport. I think, again, that this close integration, working together to leverage each other, becomes very important.
Intellectual property rights and copyright are very much on our radar and very much in fact on the government's radar. It was the subject of an in-depth discussion, I believe, at the 2007 North American leaders summit.
When we talk about copyright, it's important to understand, because some in the general public believe that when we're talking about intellectual property rights, we're talking about purses, T-shirts, and belts and so on. We're talking about serious intellectual property rights issues, such as counterfeit medication, car parts, brake parts for trucks, counterfeit hospital equipment, and so on. There are health and safety-related issues, such as batteries that explode in toys that children may be playing with. It's a very serious concern and one we're certainly mindful of.
10:40 a.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Who do they contact when they know that one of these containers is coming in?
10:40 a.m.
D/Commr Raf Souccar
If it's with respect to an organization that's involved in this type of activity, we can conduct an investigation. In organized crime, as I say, they're very opportunistic. There's a lot of money to be made, and as such, we'd be willing to investigate it. They can address themselves to the RCMP. They can address themselves to the Canada Border Services Agency. Regardless of who they address themselves to, we will be working together, because at some point or other, it's going to be coming in a container through a marine port or a port of entry. If it comes between the ports of entry, then we'll be working on it through our integrated border enforcement teams, which CBSA is also part of. At the end of the day, we'll be working together.
10:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
You can have a 30-second question, Mr. Comartin. We're over time.
10:45 a.m.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair; I appreciate it.
I understand that there's a strategic review going on at the department, and that as part of that, there are some proposed cuts of about $88 million over the next three years. Are you aware of that? And do you know where the cuts are going to be?
10:45 a.m.
D/Commr Raf Souccar
I am aware of it, but I'm afraid I'm not at liberty, at this point, to discuss exactly the contents.