Thank you, Mr. Chair, Honourable Members. I am very honoured to be appearing before you today.
The RCMP's Federal and International Operations Directorate, or FIO, works to ensure the safety and security of Canadians and their institutions, both domestically and globally. This is achieved through intelligence-based prevention, detection, investigation, and law enforcement measures aimed at terrorists, organized criminals, and other criminal elements.
Border integrity falls under FIO and encompasses branches with expertise in investigating cross-border criminality and identifying threats to Canada's national security along the shared land border, and at major air and marine entry points.
The integrated border enforcement teams, or IBETs, are an important component of the RCMP's border integrity strategy. I welcome this opportunity to talk to you about their concept and some of their successes.
Fifteen IBET regions have been created since the signing of the smart border declaration, with integrated units implemented in 24 locations along the shared border between Canada and the United States. The five core IBET agencies are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Border Services Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard.
The IBET concept is based on intelligence-led policing, coordinated information sharing and identification, investigation and interdiction of persons or organizations posing a threat to national security or engaged in other organized criminal activity. It encourages the involvement of municipal, provincial, state, federal and First Nations law enforcement agencies, other stakeholder agencies and related government departments.
I would like, if I may, to spend a few minutes explaining why the IBET is crucial to border security, the benefits of this arrangement, and the way forward.
Sophisticated criminal organizations exploit vulnerabilities in border demographics, geography, and enforcement patterns to smuggle people and commodities—such as narcotics, currency, firearms, and contraband tobacco—between Canada and the United States. Such criminality is adaptive and ever-expanding, compromising the integrity of our border and posing a real threat to the security of both nations.
On many occasions we have seen the innovation and flexibility of organized crime groups. They respond rapidly to enhanced enforcement pressures, resorting to smuggling by air or even building tunnels when faced with difficulties crossing the land borders. This puts a tremendous amount of stress on our resources as we try to anticipate their next move and respond accordingly. It emphasizes the need for law enforcement and public safety agencies to also find new ways of doing business. Simply patrolling the border hoping for a chance encounter with criminal activity is not an effective use of government's finite resources.
Several years ago the RCMP patrolled specific parts of the border. Over time it became clear that criminal organizations knew exactly how to avoid detection by such patrols and their effectiveness became questionable. As a result, we have become more intelligence-led, developed solid partnerships at home and abroad, and found better ways to share information.
The strong relationship between Canada and the U.S. makes the issues at our shared border unique. One of the greatest challenges we face is how to increase security without impeding trade. This reality directs the need for a layered approach to law enforcement efforts, as the border is much more than a line in the sand; it is a continuum.
Success in maintaining Canada's border integrity requires a multi-faceted approach to border enforcement—international, in transit, port points of entry, and inland. Border security must employ a seamless, integrated, multi-layered, and balanced approach to best protect our citizens and target the real threats.
When I say a balanced approach, I mean in addition to border enforcers we also need law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border partnering and working very closely together on the same goal, disruption of criminal activity.
The IBET model brings to bear the resources and authorities of a binational, multidisciplinary team with a full range of police, customs, immigration, and regulatory powers to support public safety and national security, not just customs and immigration authorities. Of course front-line law enforcement officers have been working together on joint operations for decades. IBET, however, is a formal relationship endorsed by both the Canadian and American governments.
The core IBET agencies are dedicated to building and maintaining strong relationships, sharing information, meeting to discuss problems, and sharing best practices and threat assessments. IBET has succeeded in opening the lines of communication among law enforcement agencies in our two countries.
All five core agencies have jointly developed and agreed to an IBET charter, a foundation document that provides authority from all signatories to ensure cooperation and deliver the mandate of the smart border declaration, to improve information sharing and cross-border enforcement for border security.
IBET is a functional, totally integrated program, with an appropriate governance structure in place to reflect the partnerships. This structure consists of an international joint management team, IJMT; international coordination team, ICT; and joint management teams, JMTs. I apologize for all the acronyms.
The IJMT consists of one official from each of the core partner agencies to represent their organization by providing general direction to the IBET program. The IJMT identifies common concerns, issues, challenges, and best practices within IBET regions and provides guidance and direction to the joint management teams. The IJMT ensures that particular attention is focused on the coordination and development of communication, standardized reporting, training, intelligence, and border awareness.
The ICT, or international coordination team, is co-located at RCMP headquarters here in Ottawa. It consists of one official from each of the core agencies, who provide day-to-day advice and assistance to IBET and joint management teams on behalf of the international joint management team.
At the local level, joint management teams have been established in each IBET region, consisting of at least one official from each of the core partner agencies and any local law enforcement agency with an interest in the integrity of the Canada-U.S. border. The joint management teams hold regular meetings to identify investigative priorities and ensure the development of both internal communication mechanisms and annual threat assessments. Regular intelligence reports are shared and joint investigations are directed.
Now, organized crime is not static at the border. Conspiracies occur in and between major Canadian and U.S. cities. The joint management teams are critical to effective border enforcement, as they facilitate the required dialogue with inland enforcement entities and coordinate appropriate responses.
Another very important component of the IBET model involves the co-location of intelligence resources in the field to facilitate the exchange of law enforcement information on criminal activities observed or interdicted at the shared border. These co-located intelligence teams jointly develop the intelligence products that are so important in implementing focused enforcement operations on the criminal organizations that are taking advantage of gaps in the security of the border between the ports of entry.
The IBET threat assessment working group jointly prepares an annual Canada-United States IBET threat assessment. This provides law enforcement with an overview of the various land and marine threats that IBET units have encountered along the border between the ports of entry.
Since their inception, IBET units have identified national security cases, disrupted smuggling rings, confiscated drugs, weapons, tobacco, and intercepted criminal networks attempting to smuggle illegal migrants. They are disrupting larger and more sophisticated criminal operations. An example is Operation Julien/Aorte. An organized crime group operating out of Montreal was overseeing smuggling operations occurring across the Maine/New Brunswick border, approximately 600 kilometres from Montreal.
Several IBET partners, including the DEA and the Quebec Provincial Police, have been involved in intelligence gathering. There have been 29 arrests. Seized contraband included: 26,500 marijuana plants, 880 lbs of marijuana, 3 kg of cocaine, 25,000 methamphetamine pills, 1,168 cartons of contraband cigarettes, 29 handguns, cash in the amounts of $186,000 US, $266,000 CDN, and an estimated $3 million in assets. It should also be made clear that IBET does not work alone. IBET units work closely with local and provincial law enforcement, with RCMP resources and the resources of our partner IBET agencies.
In closing, I would like to emphasize that maintaining public safety, safeguarding Canada's international borders, and combatting organized crime are inextricably linked. Our border security solution must be both tailored to address specific vulnerabilities along a diverse border and flexible enough to respond to the ever-evolving criminality. The IBET initiative is a critical component of that solution, and has been internationally recognized as a best practice.
Over the past several years, the Government of Canada has reiterated its commitment to ensuring the safety and security of Canadians and to working with the United States to protect the safety and integrity of our shared border. This commitment has been declared in speeches from the throne and in international policy statements.
The IBET initiative has made remarkable progress in strengthening our binational partnerships. We've seen significant improvement in our ability to share information, coordinate investigations, and enforce the laws in support of our shared mandate to enhance border security.
The IBET partners are all keenly aware that we must improve on the existing foundation to ensure the sustainability of this important bilateral initiative. We continue to examine opportunities for improvements. These include advancing and investing in interoperable border technology; increasing the number of IBET partners and resources on both sides of the line; working together to improve border integrity; creating an intelligence-led, uniformed presence between the ports of entry; eliminating barriers to effective border enforcement; and ensuring the timely exchange of border-related information with all inland enforcement partners.
I'd like to thank you for inviting us here today. We would now be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
