Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I'm very pleased to speak to you today and provide some information on the roles and responsibilities of the Canada Border Services Agency with regard to refugee asylum seekers and to discuss more specifically the agency's operations at the Roxham Road crossing.
My name is Jonathan Moor. I am the vice-president of the finance and corporate management branch and the CBSA's chief financial officer. I am joined today by my colleagues Scott Millar, vice-president of the strategic policy branch, and Dan Proulx, executive director of information sharing, access to information and the chief privacy office.
As you are aware, the number of refugee asylum claimants has grown significantly in recent years. The CBSA has needed to mobilize resources from across Canada to help address these increases, in particular since 2017 with the arrival of large numbers of claimants at Roxham Road.
Border security and integrity is a shared mandate between the CBSA and the RCMP. The CBSA is responsible for enforcing legislation at designated ports of entry. The RCMP is responsible for enforcing the law between those ports of entry. It is important to note that the CBSA encourages all refugee asylum claimants to apply to enter to Canada at a designated port of entry.
However, the number of between-the-ports arrivals, sometimes referred to as “irregular arrivals”, has continued to increase. Since January 1, 2022, the CBSA has already processed over 26,500 irregular arrivals in Quebec, mostly at the Roxham Road crossing.
Those who enter in between designated ports of entry—in this case, at Roxham Road—are intercepted by the RCMP and brought to the nearest CBSA port of entry, which is at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. Then they are processed by CBSA officers and they make a claim for asylum. The role of the CBSA is to determine the admissibility of a person and the eligibility of the claim under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
All refugee claimants, whether they arrive at a designated port of entry or between the ports of entry, undergo a health and security screening. The security screening is a crucial part of the overall assessment of whether a person is admissible to Canada. The process ensures that anyone who wants to come to Canada has not committed serious crimes and does not pose a health or safety risk to Canadians. We have the appropriate resources in place to ensure that no one leaves the port of entry until the security screening has been completed.
Our border services officers work closely with other law enforcement agencies, both nationally and internationally, to help identify and investigate persons who may be inadmissible to Canada. In some cases, officers may arrest, detain and remove persons who are inadmissible. Since 2017, there have been over 18,800 irregular arrivals in Quebec, and so the numbers were too high to process at the agency's existing port of entry facilities. Therefore, to ensure proper screening and to accommodate the large number of refugee claimants at Roxham Road, it was necessary for the CBSA to invest in additional processing and accommodation infrastructure in partnership with our colleagues at PSPC.
Since 2017 this infrastructure has been provided through a number of temporary structures, mainly by using mobile trailers for both accommodation and processing facilities. The leases on these mobile facilities are due to expire at the end of the year, so a decision was taken to consolidate the operations into two existing buildings to house all the functions of the regional processing centre.
In October 2021, the agency announced a contract to retrofit these buildings situated at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle port of entry. The work is due to be completed shortly and will help to ensure adequate waiting space and humanitarian assistance while refugee asylum claimants are being processed at the border. Once the CBSA has completed its processing, the claimants' longer-term accommodation requirements fall under the responsibility of the IRCC and the provinces.
The CBSA is committed to treating all people who are seeking asylum in Canada with compassion and ensuring they are afforded a due and fair process under the law. We will also continue to ensure the security and the safety of all Canadians by following public health guidelines at the border.
I hope this information has been helpful to you. I will now make myself and my colleagues available to answer any of your questions.
Thank you.