Thank you, Mr. Bolduc. Thank you, Chair and committee. Good morning.
In regard to commercial modernization, there is a lot of information in one piece of paper in this presentation, but I'll keep it high level.
From a strategy perspective, risk-based compliance is where the CBSA is targeting and trying to focus its intent. It's broken into five different pillars, the first one being client identification. Within client identification, what we're trying to do is ensure that we have the right data at the right time and understand who our entities are that we're dealing with. Instead of having multiple disparate businesses, if we can consolidate that to one, we then can focus on whether they're compliant or non-compliant.
The second pillar is pushing the borders out. This is where we're working to get the right information in advance of the goods actually arriving in Canada. One of our key initiatives is the advance commercial information initiative, ACI, and this is where things link into the single window initiative, SWI, as well as pre-clearance and e-commerce. We're trying to make sure that the information is pre-assessed before they arrive at the border in Canada.
The third one is facilitating low risk. The key to this is the trusted trader initiative. We also work with U.S. CBP, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and their program is called CTPAT. Our program is called partners in protection, PIP.
If we can register certain high-volume companies, known traders, who are low risk, we can then give them some benefits. We can give them expedited clearance at the border; we could actually reduce their examination rates. We can, in some cases, also provide additional benefits overseas. This is through the mutual recognition arrangements. We will give equivalent authority to similar programs overseas, meaning trusted trader programs in another county. If they're validated by CBSA and then cross-validated by that country, we will then have reciprocal agreements.
From a revenue management perspective, the CBSA is working to have a brand new program called CARM. With it, we're going to be modernizing the way we work with our clients, having a single point of contact, single dashboards, where we can integrate a lot of the information that's coming in from multiple systems. That is obviously to generate revenue, and to also collect duties and taxes. This is key, especially with what Mr. Bolduc put down for e-commerce. The growth is very high. It has also increased our threat environment, with things like fentanyl and other highly toxic substances like synthetic opioids being illegally brought into the country.
The last piece is on strengthening our export compliance regime, and that's through regulation changes. We're increasing compliance through a brand new system called the Canadian automated export declaration system. That's run by Statistics Canada, but CBSA is a key partner in that.
The next slide is “Commercial Programs Overview”. I'll talk a little about the objectives.
Our objective is obviously to facilitate the import and export of commercial goods while ensuring our trusted trading partners can reach their destination with minimal interventions. We develop, maintain, and administer commercial policies, procedures, regulations, and legislation related to the movement of commercial goods into, through, and out of Canada. We also ensure that all importers and exporters understand and respect applicable Canadian trade laws and international agreements, as well as collect duties and taxes on imported goods.
In regard to the activities on the next slide, CBSA and the commercial programs focus in a couple of areas, starting with targeting intelligence collection analysis and security screening. A lot of these activities are done before the individual or the goods arrive within Canada, as mentioned. Trade facilitation compliance is also aligned with the placemat that I showed you. In it, we have things like anti-dumping and countervailing programs whereby we're trying to ensure that admissible goods, the ones that adhere to Canadian regulations—all the 90 acts and regulations that the CBSA enforces—are processed in the most efficient manner.
We can also ensure that our trade partners are compliant and processed expeditiously. From a trusted trader program perspective, it's obviously to increase the processing efficiency for low-risk, pre-approved partners. From a recourse perspective, we are trying to provide the business community with access to timely redress mechanisms. From a buildings and equipment and field technology support perspective—this is a key—we have numerous ports across our country, whether they be a land port, ocean to ocean to ocean, or the numerous airports that we service, as well as rail locations.
