Thank you.
We hear a lot about whether it would make sense to add more imaging devices. As members said earlier, apparently a very small percentage of containers passing through Canada's ports, less than 1% according to some sources, are inspected. I do wonder if that's a good solution, though, because there are also cars being exported legally. Just because a car is in a container doesn't mean it has been stolen.
Sometimes fraudulent documents are used, though. For a recent investigation, the Journal de Montréal analyzed more than 74,000 vehicle export declarations from the Port of Montreal between January and mid-September 2023. The newspaper found that 4,125 of those declarations used vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, that had been previously declared as exports a number of times. By carrying out a simple analysis using an Excel document, the newspaper was able to see that these VINs had been used on a number of occasions.
What's preventing the Canada Border Services Agency from quickly identify VINs or fraudulent documents? What's being done about companies that export containers through the Port of Montreal? Isn't there a better way to do background checks on them?
I understand that the police want to do their job well, but they need a warrant and grounds to believe that there is something fraudulent going on before opening a container. What is the process for that? Could that be strengthened as well?