Evidence of meeting #3 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
That's fair. We won't waste any more time there.
Could you tell me approximately, if you can, what percentage of refugees who come in to be screened basically tell you at the end of it, “Look, we really don't want to go anyplace and we'd sooner stay here because we're hoping to go back to our homeland”? That's normal enough.
Could you give me any idea of what the numbers might be there?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Operations Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
No, I'm not the authority to tell you what those numbers are. IRCC would be the better authority to confirm those numbers.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Operations Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
We can pass that on to our IRCC colleagues, for sure.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
I think we've covered my questions on interview, length of time, and what have you. Do you or your people in the field at any point feel uncomfortable with the process that has been shoved upon you?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Operations Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
As an official of the CBSA, we take security very seriously, as mentioned earlier, and this is not being compromised. I can tell you from an official's perspective and from the one who runs operations that I feel very comfortable, and my officers both overseas and here are doing the job they need to do to ensure the protection of Canadians.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you very much. We're at our time.
Since there are only two minutes, we can take one and a half minutes.
Mr. Erskine-Smith.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
All right.
In your opening remarks, you mentioned that organized cross-border crime is increasingly networked and tech savvy. You went on to say that the CBSA is working on a number of transformative information technology projects that are under way. Can you give us an example of a few of these, what their statuses are, and what the projects are?
12:55 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Canada Border Services Agency
Absolutely.
First of all, we have scenario-based targeting systems we're looking at that allow us to look at screening indicators to identify higher risk, whether it be travellers or cargo. That's a new tool that has been helping us.
In terms of our transformation, I could probably break it down better from a traveller perspective and then from a commercial perspective, in terms of how we're facilitating.
On the traveller side, things such as the NEXUS program, which you're very aware of I'm sure, actually help us pre-screen, identify risks, and allow us to facilitate travellers a lot more.
On the commercial side, we have things such as the single window initiative, which is basically an automated.... Previously if somebody wanted to bring goods, they needed to let us know. They would have to apply to, potentially, the CFIA and a number of our colleague departments. Now they can go through one department and identify all their requirements and get the regulatory requirements done once.
We have a trusted trader program as well, which allows us, again, to pre-screen trading and allows us to facilitate. Other programs that we're working on are enhanced facilities for trusted programs as well. The radio frequency identification initiative basically allows people with the radio frequency identification card to be able to...such as a NEXUS. When you're at a land border, if you scan it through, we get the information right away, so that by the time you've driven through we have the information on the screen, allowing you to be processed quicker.
Also on the commercial side, we have our e-manifest—
I could go on and on, so I guess I should stop.
We have also our e-manifest solution, which will allow us to pre-look at cargo before it comes here and risk-assess it. It allows cargo to then move a lot faster from a trade perspective.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you very much, and thank you for your public service. Thank you for being with us today and being so helpful.
It being 1:01 p.m., we are now going to adjourn this meeting and we will reconvene on Tuesday at our last meeting of foundational meetings with briefings from the department officials so we can continue our work.
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.