Good morning, Mr. Chair, and to the committee. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today about Canada Border Service Agency's protocols and procedures team and the role it plays in working with our partners for major events.
My name is Calvin Christiansen, and I am the director general of the border operations centre and major events directorate of the operations branch at the Canada Border Services Agency.
To put the agency's role into perspective, I'd like to begin by providing an overview of the CBSA's mandate.
The CBSA is responsible for providing integrated border services that support national security and public safety priorities and facilitate the free flow of persons and goods, including animals and plants, that meet all of the requirements under program legislation. The CBSA administers over 90 acts and regulations on behalf of other government departments and agencies, and is primarily responsible for enforcing the Customs Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The CBSA provides services at approximately 1,200 service points across Canada, including 117 land border crossings, 13 major international airports, five marine port facilities, 444 small-vessel marina reporting sites, and three postal processing plants.
As such, while our international events team assists with significant national events, it does always with our mandate and legislative principles as the core guiding principles.
In addition, the CBSA is mindful of the service-level expectations of Canadians. Within the traveller stream, border services officers question people upon arrival to determine if they and their personal goods meet the requirements of applicable legislation and regulations to enter Canada. Border services officers will then make a decision to grant entry or refer a person for further processing—for example, payment of duties and taxes, issuance of a document, etc.—and/or for a physical examination.
When significant events are being planned, such as a royal visit, music festival, sports event, or concert, the CBSA must be involved in the planning to ensure that Canada's immigration and customs laws are followed. All foreign dignitaries entering Canada must demonstrate that they meet Canada's entry requirements, including the presentation of proper travel documents, such as a passport. The same rules that apply to Canadian residents and visitors to Canada also apply to foreign dignitaries and heads of state.
The international events and convention services program provides guidance to tourism and the international business community about the CBSA's visitor and goods admissibility requirements. Border procedures and processes are streamlined through the team with the goal of easing border crossings through pre-arrival strategies.
We have nine regional coordinators across the country who have successfully contributed to more than 1,300 international events each year.
In addition, I should add that not all of those international events involve the clearance of a dignitary who is coming for an event, but this is just the scale of the international events we deal with.
In addition, information and guidance on CBSA admissibility requirements for organizers of large events taking place is available through the regional coordinators or through our office in Ottawa.
As these events focus the eyes of the world on Canada, normally attracting significant media attention and exerting significant pressures on CBSA resources, the Major International Events Coordination and Facilitation team plays a critical role in ensuring the CBSA is operationally prepared and ready for spikes in activity related to large events such as the winter Olympics and the upcoming Pan American Games.
The unit provides information for event organizers involved in promoting Canada as a destination for their events. The major focus is to facilitate the border crossing process by providing guidance to all key partners and participants on Canada's admissibility requirements and potential remission entitlements for visitors and goods.
The national courtesy and expedited clearance program manages, authorizes, and maintains information on requests for all official courtesy and expedited clearance privileges. The objective of the national courtesy and expedited clearance program is to facilitate the presence in Canada of visiting foreign dignitaries who qualify for courtesy or expedited clearance.
A courtesy clearance involves the streamlining of CBSA formalities in which the primary and secondary inspections are amalgamated to ensure the efficient and secure passage of the individual or the delegation.
Courtesy and expedited clearance procedures ensure that the CBSA has the necessary information in advance of the arrival of the qualified individuals. Courtesy or expedited clearance procedures do not exempt the legislative requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act or the Customs Act.
Expedited clearance is the facilitation of CBSA formalities in which the primary questioning is performed in an accelerated manner, usually at the special services or crew counter at major international airports. The program serves as the key point of contact for courtesy and expedited clearances that may be requested by DFAIT's Office of Protocol, Heritage Canada, the Department of National Defence, the Supreme Court of Canada, or provincial offices of protocol.
While the CBSA has in place specific teams to provide expert information and guidance regarding special events and visits, it relies heavily on partnerships to ensure smooth, incident-free processes. These partnerships are mostly at headquarters with other federal departments; however, there is significant work done at the provincial, regional, and municipal levels where the actual events do take place. It's the guidance at the local level that ensures these events are successful, and this is where evidence of the CBSA's expertise is seen.
The CBSA processes millions of travellers each year at our 13 international airports, and we process, in total, about 1,500 courtesy or expedited clearances each year, so that's the combination of what we have from DFAIT and from other organizations. In some instances, we'll refer to an event, but the event will have several people attached to that event as well. The majority of these take place in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
The CBSA works hard to maintain our levels of service, and we continue to improve our service through various traveller processing initiatives, such as NEXUS and advanced border clearance terminals. So this continues to go on in the background while we have courtesy or expedited clearances happening.
The Canada Border Services Agency is a proud participant in Canada's national tourism strategy. We continue to provide a high level of service and working-level advice and guidance to organizers of special events at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. By ensuring secure and efficient border management processes, the CBSA plays an integral role in their success.
Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening statement. I'd be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.