Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to thank the witnesses for being with us today. In the last several weeks we've seen the impact of border delays at our airports and land borders, and the potential impact it is having on our tourism sector. I'm going to go to Mr. Vinette.
In January you had talked to that CBC and there's a story that was called “Canada planning technological fixes to make crossing the border faster”. You were quoted as saying that “the agency had been considering technological changes to the border—but the pandemic has allowed it to break through 'glass ceilings' that were in the way.” You further mentioned that “prior to the pandemic, the CBSA had brought the average time spent speaking with a customs officer at the land border down to an average of 55 seconds.” You went on to say that with the new technologies, the agency hoped to bring that average time down to 15 seconds.
While talking to stakeholders in my community I found they were facing border delays of two and a half hours. How is that working for you?