Our borders need to be staffed. We desperately need staff. As I said, we need between 2,000 and 3,000 officers countrywide. We need to stop replacing officers with technology. That has to be there to assist officers, not replace them. An app is not going to interdict anything. I think an overreliance on technology is really embedded in the CBSA.
The former CBSA president, John Ossowski, sits on the advisory board of the Future Borders Coalition, whose main mandate is advancing technologies to largely speed up the border. There's not too much focus on security. They have been pushing for an advancement of mobile app technology since pre-COVID, in around 2018. We really need to stop thinking there's a magic technology bullet that's going to fix the situation at our borders.
I think the other thing the agency could look at is going the next decade without hiring another manager. You would likely still have too many.