Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for coming today.
Let me just start by saying that, as far as we're concerned, rest assured that we are the free trade party, and we certainly do not plan on holding anything up. We want to get this and see it through to the end, and we're certainly excited to do that.
I think it's also important to understand that we need to do our due diligence, and my questions for you today are going to be a little bit different from what I've been hearing around the table. It's regarding implementation and what you specifically heard from the government, because, to some extent, we don't get all the information that we need. Specifically, it's about the implementation and how the CBSA is connected to that. Have you spoken to other companies that do a lot of cross-border trade? That's kind of where I'm going with this.
I'll start off by letting you know that my riding of Essex is literally a neighbour to the border at the busiest international trade crossing in North America, so I'm very much up to speed on that front, and I also spent 25 years with a company that did international trade. I used to type in all the wonderful little tariff numbers, so I'm quite up to speed on this file in that regard.
As a little bit of background, for those who don't know, the CBSA is the agency that oversees the secure entry and export of goods to and from Canada. The CBSA will be the agency that implements much of the CUSMA agreement as goods pass through the 1,200 points of entry and exit across Canada, and the terms of CUSMA are set to come into force on the first day of the third month following the last notification of ratification between the parties.
I have just a couple of quick questions and then I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on that.
I'm hearing from industry that they're concerned about the implementation, particularly about the 90-day transition period. Given that the CBSA is the agency that will implement much of the CUSMA agreement, and given that in the mandate letter for the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness there is no statement on the implementation of CUSMA specifically—there are five points on gun control but nothing on the implementation of CUSMA—do you have any concerns that the CBSA is not going to be ready for the first day of the third month? Have you heard any concerns about whether they're going to be ready to meet that?