Bonjour. Thank you.
Chair, members, and representatives of the Auditor General, thank you for the opportunity to provide the CBSA's perspective on the Auditor General's report.
I'd like to introduce my colleagues: Stephen Rigby, executive vice-president; and Ms. Cathy Munroe, the director general of the operations branch.
First, it's important to understand the critical role of the border in ensuring both security and prosperity. The border plays a dual role of facilitation and security. Smart and secure borders keep criminals and other dangerous elements out and allow for efficient border support of immigration, trade, and tourism.
WIth thousands of trucks, boats, aircraft and travellers going across Canada's borders every day, it goes without saying that our agency plays a vital role in ensuring access to the Canadian economy. Here is an overview of what goes across the border every day: 17,000 trucks and 260,000 travellers. Further, over $70 million in taxes are collected every day and cross-border trade totals over $1.9 billion every day.
While we must be vigilant against dangerous people and goods, we must also ensure that the border is a gateway to prosperity, not a cumbersome checkpoint that hurts our economy.
The genesis of the CBSA was a very rare occurrence, where a new organization was created overnight by putting together pieces of three different organizations with a new mandate. The formation of a 13,000-person and $1.5-billion organization is a huge and complex undertaking. We've built this organization while operating on a 7/24 basis in a post-9/11 environment, with ongoing demands for new border services and significant resource pressures. In spite of these pressures, we are confident that our people and processes make Canada's border among the most secure and efficient in the world.
We have made significant progress in establishing the agency. CBSA is now a more mature and stable organization and has achieved some significant results in 2006-07, including over 10,000 weapons seized, 500 of which were firearms; 9,000 drug seizures, valued at over $400 million; and the removal of over 12,000 inadmissible persons in 2006, including 2,000 for reasons of criminality.
Clearly all nations, including Canada, cannot guarantee absolute safety against border threats. CBSA processes an average of 97 million travellers every year and approves the entry of over $400 billion in imported goods annually. It is impossible to stop and check every individual and every piece of merchandise.
Therefore, our focus must be on risk management. Over the past four years, the CBSA has developed a robust and sophisticated border management regime with a scientific approach to risk assessment and detection.
CBSA risk management is multi-layered. Our operations are based on three fundamental strategies: pre-approval programs to facilitate low-risk people and goods; advance information on what and who is coming to the border to identify high or unknown risk people and goods; and then turning this information into intelligence using sophisticated science and technology-based risk assessment systems.
CBSA is now engaged in huge and complex initiatives that will further transform and modernize border management, including deploying new science and technology such as biometrics for identifying trusted travellers, and sophisticated detection technologies for radiation; arming border officers and eliminating situations where they are working alone; working with U.S. counterparts in ensuring that the western hemisphere travel initiative is implemented as smoothly as possible and does not impede travel and cross-border trade.
But our work is far from being done. Integration is not fully completed yet. There are still many finishing touches to apply.
The Auditor General's report highlights areas where we need to, and will, make progress. The CBSA concurs with all the recommendations in the AG's report, which are indeed consistent with our ongoing actions and future plans.
A comprehensive action plan has been developed to address all of the recommendations, and actions have already been taken and completed, in some cases. As I said, we agree with the Auditor General that we can and must do better. Implementing her recommendations will enhance our ability to manage risk and improve border operations.
Thank you, and I look forward to our discussion.