Good morning. My name is Sylvain St-Laurent, and I am Vice-President of the Comptrollership Branch and Senior Financial Officer at the Canada Border Services Agency.
I would first like to thank the committee for inviting the Canada Border Services Agency to participate in this important discussion regarding our role and expenditures related to the G-8 and G-20 summits.
Over the four-day period leading up to the summits, the CBSA processed over 604 heads of state, foreign ministers, royalty, and heads of world organizations, as well as approximately 2,000 people in their immediate entourages. In addition, the CBSA also processed over 250 individuals via ministerial level courtesy clearances for the over 90 preparatory visits in the six months preceding the summits. The agency is proud of its employees for their professional handling of such an unprecedented volume of diplomatic entourages without incident.
As this is of key interest to the committee, I would like to spend a moment discussing the expenses of the agency with regard to the summits.
The CBSA's expenses for the summits, both for the planning stages and their execution, were essentially associated with salary expenditures. The agency received $1.13 million and spent $1.26 million, a difference of about $126,000, to support these summits for the following main activities: project coordination and planning; risk management; operational delivery; and post-event review.
The incremental salary costs were mainly a result of CBSA's participation in the joint intelligence group in Barrie, and mostly for border services officers processing delegates and media, both at the infield terminal and at airports across the country, as well as for officers assisting the RCMP with baggage screening and special clearance requests. Officers were brought in from nearby locations and regions for operational delivery, and these resources were then backfilled in their home organizations using overtime expenditures.
The summit management office determined that the summit participants' primary airport of arrival would be the infield terminal at Lester B. Pearson International Airport, which is not, for CBSA, a port of entry that is normally operational. The site was refurbished by Public Works and included CBSA satellite office space, equipment, and personnel necessary to receive and clear the delegations.
Resources were also invested to support marine operations officers, who provided assistance to Toronto Police Services with mandatory verifications of all pleasure craft during the summit period and a joint presence on the waterways to ensure security.
Money also went to the accreditation and risk assessment processes. Investments were made in the Emergency Preparedness Regional Operations Centre, as well as a 24/7 Joint Intelligence Group in Barrie. Lastly, money was spent on telecommunications equipment for our officers.
To support all of these activities, the CBSA received $1.13 million dollars. Our final expenditures came to $1.26 million, for a difference of $126,000.
I thank the committee for the opportunity to make this presentation, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.