Madam Chair and committee members, good afternoon.
I am pleased to be here today to speak about the Beyond the Border Action Plan and what we are doing at Transport Canada to address concerns raised in the Auditor General's report.
In 2011, Canada and the United States issued the Beyond the Border Action Plan, which included 34 initiatives aimed at making the Canada-U.S. border more efficient, safe, and secure.
My focus today is on one of these initiatives, namely deploying wait-time technology at the border. Under the beyond the border action plan, Canada and the United States committed to install border wait-time measurement solutions at top, high-priority land border crossings. The goal was to provide real-time information to drivers on border wait times. This information allows travellers and commercial drivers to make informed decisions about when and where to cross the border.
Border wait-time technology has been installed and is operational on both sides of the border at seven crossings. There are four between British Columbia and Washington State, two between Ontario and New York State, and one between Ontario and Michigan.
The audit report recommended that Transport Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency work together to assess the benefits of the existing border wait-time technology and to develop performance indicators to measure benefits of completed and ongoing border technology installations. Both departments agreed with the recommendations and committed to working together to address them. We recognize the importance of accurate and reliable border wait-time data at border crossings.
Transport Canada developed a management action plan in consultation with the Canada Border Services Agency that included establishing a working group to address the recommendations to develop performance indicators and to assess the benefits of the border wait-time technology.
I'm pleased to inform you that we have established the working group. It was formed in December 2016 and is made up of staff from Transport Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. The working group met in January and analysis work is under way to develop the performance indicators. These indicators are a set of measurable values that demonstrate how effectively the border wait-time technologies are performing.
We intend to have performance indicators developed by March of this year, which would allow us to then assess the benefits of the existing border wait-time technology by July of 2017.
In conclusion, I would like to thank you again for hearing us today. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have on the deployment of border wait-time technology.