Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and honourable members of the committee, thank you very much for inviting Canada Border Services Agency to participate in today's hearing.
The prairie region of CBSA is responsible for securing the prairie, NWT, and Canada's borders at our ports of entry, which consist of 37 land borders, five airports, and two marine locations.
As the director of inland enforcement mainly responsible for the immigration program for the prairie regions, I'm responsible for both programs in enforcement and hearings in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Northwest Territories.
The inland enforcement operations, which are responsible for the investigation, detection, and apprehension of violators of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or IRPA, are located in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Lethbridge, and Edmonton.
The hearings operation, or hearings program, is located in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton. This is responsible for representing the interests of both the CBSA and the citizenship and immigration minister before the Immigration and Refugee Board. This includes the immigration division, the immigration appeal division, the refugee protection division, and, in some instances, Federal Court proceedings.
The inland enforcement or immigration officers in this region work in unison with our port of entry operations, criminal investigations, and intelligence division both regionally and nationally to meet the program mandate.
The mandate for inland enforcement--