Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm grateful to be joining you today from my office here at YVR, which is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. I pay my respects to elders past and present.
On behalf of the Vancouver Airport Authority, we appreciate the opportunity to present to the committee today.
With the federal government removing the mandatory requirements for travellers to submit their personal health and vaccination information, we are pleased that we can now go back to focusing on the original intended purpose for ArriveCAN: to support the continued modernization of Canada's customs processing, which benefits travellers, Canadians and indeed the entire Canadian economy.
YVR has a long history of partnering with the federal government to innovate and modernize traveller processing. I want to acknowledge and thank local CBSA staff, officers and senior departmental officials for their ongoing collaboration over the years.
In preparing for this appearance, I was looking at some old photos of our customs hall here at YVR, and I found one from 2005. It was a time when we were growing our passenger volumes exponentially, and we were deep in the throes of preparing to welcome the world for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. At that time, it was a regular occurrence for the CBSA customs hall at YVR to be packed with passengers. Planes had to be held at gates, and passengers waited hours in lineups as valuable customs officer time was spent reviewing administrative paperwork. Airlines that had connecting service to YVR were actively looking to divert to other U.S. airports and away from YVR completely.
Building our way out of that problem was not an option, so we sat down with the CBSA and, in partnership, looked at an innovative idea, one that combined ultra-efficient technology with live border official interaction. The result was the launch of YVR's border express primary inspection kiosks in 2008.
Today, as members of the committee likely know, these kiosks are widely used in airports and seaports around the world. In North America alone, these kiosks have safely processed over 250 million people without a security incident. Indeed, today a customs officer at YVR can securely process a full A380 aircraft—that's 469 passengers—in about 20 minutes.
Fifteen years ago, kiosks revolutionized customs processing. Now we're here in 2022, and we believe that the ArriveCAN platform will support the next natural evolutionary step in Canada's customs and border processing modernization. The optional advance declaration feature in ArriveCAN is a great example. Right now it seamlessly integrates with existing kiosk technology in the customs hall, and that's thanks to another YVR-CBSA partnership that occurred this past summer.
Today, passengers who use that optional feature in ArriveCAN cut their time in an airport customs hall by half compared with those who do not. That includes families that are arriving together, even when one or two of the loved ones may not be tech savvy or may not have access to a computer and need a bit of help at the kiosk from their family member to complete their declaration when they arrive.
Where we really see the benefit right now is in our international to domestic connections facility. Ms. Potter spoke about the importance of gaining greater access to tourism options, and this is doing it. Travellers who continue to use the ArriveCAN optional feature to submit their advance declaration have the peace of mind that they'll be able to make their connecting flight even if they have a short layover here at YVR, in Toronto or in Montreal, and soon at many other airports across Canada. That's going to be really important for the millions of travellers we're going to welcome through the winter months who need to quickly connect to another Canadian airport to experience our incredible tourism offerings in every part of the country.
In the future, the ArriveCAN platform will help border officials automate the recognition of individuals as the federal government expands its biometric requirements for travellers who apply for visas or for work or study permits as well as newcomers seeking to resettle here in Canada and contribute productively to Canada's economy.
In closing, our ask is the same as that of Ms. Pasher, and that is, first, please stay focused on how ArriveCAN can be used to best modernize while keeping Canada's borders safe and secure, and second, continue to work collaboratively with the entire air sector on that journey of innovation and modernization.
Thank you very much. I look forward to the discussion.