At the CBSA, you're absolutely correct, our frontline numbers are not nearly what we need. We estimate that we need between 2,000 and 3,000 additional officers on the front line. In the time you described, we've added about 2,000 middle managers to the CBSA. It seems to be the only section that is growing.
Our officers are exhausted and under incredible stress. We have summer action plans that have mandatory overtime. The amount of leave we can take is limited. Many officers resort to leave without pay just to get some time off.
Of course, when you look at the lineups and volumes we're dealing with and talk about what's being proposed under Bill C-20, with travellers waiting sometimes two to three hours to get to an officer, we are more and more dealing with people who are arriving to us furious. That is the baseline of what we have to deal with, quite often, when travellers finally get to us.
The solutions being proposed by the CBSA are automated kiosks, e-gates and things like that. In terms of public safety, they are scary, in our opinion. They have done nothing to alleviate the backlog. We're desperate to get more people working at the border, on the front line.