Thank you, Madam Chair.
I just want to reiterate a few things and emphasize a few things that have already been said, mostly that the world is changing at the borders really quickly. In all the years that I was involved with borders, it was all about more infrastructure and more staff. What we're finding is that the infrastructure is becoming prohibitively expensive and it's incredibly difficult to get and train more staff.
The good news is that there have been huge advancements made in biometrics, and biometrics, I believe, is going to save the day because what it does is allow a better recognition of the individuals who are crossing the border in a quicker time. It's known that when somebody comes to the border and a CBSA or a CBP officer looks at their picture and they look at the individual they have about a 60% chance of really identifying that it's the individual it's supposed to be. Biometrics is about 99%, and biometrics are instant.
CBP is making huge advancements in that area, and there are pilot projects that are going to take place at the Peace Bridge this summer involving biometrics that will allow for the processing of people in vehicles much faster. The good news is that you can do more people with the same staff and you don't need any new infrastructure. At the Lewiston Bridge right now, the plaza at the Lewiston Bridge, there's $90 million that's going forward. It's a lot of money. You're putting in more lanes and, of course, there comes a time when that's no longer sustainable.
There are things that can be done. I'll summarize it by saying that among some of the key things that can be done is, first of all, for Canada to invest heavily in biometrics because the United States has got a really big head start on it. I think they're on to something really good, and they're implementing in airports now.
Second, Canada really does need to implement a passport card to take advantage of RFID. I talked about this five years ago. When the person from Passport Canada was bringing out a new passport—and he was very proud of it—I asked him at the time, do you have a passport card? He looked at me as if I had two heads. He said it wasn't on their priority list. That was five years ago.
Putting RFID in all the lanes, on which progress is being made, working on biometrics, and a new passport card will go a long way to helping things proceed across the border.
Thank you.