Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today as the national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, which represents personnel working for the CBSA, including frontline border services officers.
For many of our members, or anyone familiar with CBSA management, the Auditor General’s report on the ArriveCAN procurement process did not come as a surprise. This is not because our members were involved in the development of the application or in the procurement process that led to the ongoing debacle. They were not, nor were they consulted about the usefulness of such an endeavour. Had they had a chance to do so, they would have surely informed the agency’s management of ArriveCAN’s futility. Rather, much of what the Auditor General’s office found resonated with our members because they are all too well acquainted with the agency’s labour relations practices.
In her opening statement to this committee, the Auditor General noted the “glaring disregard” for basic management practices uncovered during the audit. As our members know, this disregard for proper managerial procedure is deeply embedded within the agency.
Be it in terms of the profound lack of accountability found at all management levels, the tendency to retaliate against employees for speaking up, or the poorly run and arbitrary internal investigation and disciplinary process, CBSA management’s track record speaks for itself. While keen on punishing its lower level employees at the slightest allegation, the agency routinely turns a blind eye to far more serious breaches within management.
The situation within the security and professional standards directorate, which is responsible for internal investigations, is especially egregious, with the directorate showing little understanding of the basic principles of procedural fairness. Reform is badly needed to ensure the integrity of a process that should be fair, transparent and unbiased, yet is anything but.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the procurement process that led to ArriveCAN was fraught with issues, and it should come as no surprise that the resulting product has been found to be of poor value to Canadians. What must be stressed is how this poor value extends far beyond the mere economic aspect. ArriveCAN, in its current form, actively undermines the security of Canadians by removing crucial interactions between officer and traveller. It is the cornerstone of CBSA’s border modernization strategy, which focuses entirely on facilitation, with little thought for the safety and security of our communities.
The reality is that ArriveCAN was far from a necessity in the first place. It is both the result and the continuation of a steady erosion of our federal public service, which has seen our ability to react in times of crisis drastically reduced over the years. This decline was hastened by policies such as the Conservatives’ deficit reduction action plan back in 2014, when thousands of public service workers were removed, including about 1,100 border services officers.
At the border, this same decline has been further fuelled by the current administration’s focus on inefficient technology and the hiring of more and more managers at the expense of officers. With important security matters at the forefront of national discussions, such as stolen car exports, gun smuggling, the opioid crisis, etc., it is extremely galling to see the agency squander in the worst possible way nearly $60 million on an app that ultimately does very little.
It is irresponsible to inject such funds into a project of this kind, instead of hiring much-needed additional staff or seeking to improve existing infrastructure, which would bring real value to Canadians. This is to say little of the agency’s decision to spend dozens of millions of dollars on the private sector, instead of choosing to invest in its workers and reinforce their capacity to act on behalf of Canadians. At a time when our members are being nickel-and-dimed at the bargaining table, this is nothing less than a slap in the face.
CIU members are proud of the work they do to serve Canadians and of their role as Canada’s first line of defence, yet CBSA management’s actions continue to cast a shadow on the organization as a whole. The Auditor General’s report brings to light what many of our members have known for a long time.
I urge the federal government, along with the CBSA, to seize this opportunity to change course. Canadians are owed an agency built on solid principles, whereby the front line is properly supported to ensure the security of all.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.