I am pleased to rise on behalf of the official opposition to address Bill C-18 which the Reform caucus will be supporting.
We think this bill seeks to achieve some worthwhile and admirable objectives in empowering our customs officers with certain police style powers to detain people suspected of serious crimes when they are clearly breaking our laws as they cross our borders. We support the intent of the bill.
In the debate on second reading of this bill we raised numerous questions which had not at that time been adequately addressed by the government but which we think have since been adequately addressed by the government and were comprehensively addressed by the parliamentary secretary in her remarks.
Those concerns included the cost of improving and upgrading the facilities of our customs ports to permit the detention of suspected criminals. The government advises us now that the costs entailed will be no greater than $5.5 million which we think is a reasonable cost for empowering these customs officers to protect our borders more thoroughly. We will of course, as in all matters, watch scrupulously the actual expenditures on this new program to ensure that costs are maintained within the amount estimated.
We also expressed concern about the training necessary to make our customs officers capable of exercising these new peace officer powers. We were particularly concerned about the growing number of student customs officers and to what extent they might be empowered by this bill. But we have been well advised by the government that adequate training will be in place for properly trained customs officers to exercise these powers and that student officers will not be permitted to exercise the powers granted by Bill C-18. So we are satisfied with that.
We were also concerned at the outset about adequate equipment. In particular, how is it that customs officers are not armed in order to enforce the law and protect themselves and to defend our borders against potentially aggressive criminals whom they may have to detain? We still have an outstanding concern in that regard. But the government has made a compelling case that immediate back-up support will be available with properly empowered peace officers, principally the RCMP, who can provide the kind of equipment needed to back up our customs officers in difficult and potentially violent situations.
Finally, we expressed a concern about the potential infringement of civil liberties of people who could be detained at the borders without due process. The government has satisfied us, as have organizations such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, that the bill is narrow enough in its scope that it is unlikely to lead to abuse of these new found police powers on the part of customs officers.
Our principal concerns have been adequately addressed. We are pleased to support this bill. It is unfortunate, in one respect, that it has been so long in coming. It is a bill which is really a gesture of common sense, a gesture to take the necessary steps to protect the integrity of our borders.
Let me take this opportunity to say that I have an ongoing concern that we are not doing enough to defend the integrity of our borders against smuggling and the importation of contraband across our ports of entry. I have raised in this House the matter of a certain senior, 25-year veteran customs officer named Dennis Coffey. Mr. Coffey has made very troubling allegations, under oath, about corruption, fraud, nepotism and abuse at the customs branch of Revenue Canada. He has indicated that there are tens of thousands of shipments coming through our major points of entry, particularly in Ontario, trucking points of entry as well as airports, where potential contraband shipments are not being adequately inspected.
This is a concern which was confirmed by a document which the official opposition obtained from the security division of the Department of National Revenue, which we released in December. It is a document which indicates that Revenue Canada believes there is a reasonably large quantity of contraband narcotics and illegal drugs being imported into Canada, across our points of entry, without adequate inspection by customs.
What this report suggests is that some drug lords are actually couriering their shipments of hashish, marijuana, cocaine and heroin into Canada with 24-hour, 10 a.m. delivery. I find it quite astonishing that a drug lord can get his shipment of cocaine to where he wants it in Canada more quickly than Canada Post can deliver a letter, and he can do so without fear of very serious inspection on the part of customs agents.
There are still some very large and troubling questions with respect to the administration of the various customs statutes. We must ensure that these contraband materials are not being imported into Canada. The official opposition intends to introduce legislation at some point in the future in this place to address those concerns. We understand that less than 1% of courier shipments from countries identified as major narcotics exporters are being inspected. A foreign drug lord can make the reasonable calculation that if only 1% of his contraband is going to be inspected and detained by customs Canada, 99% will get to his customers.
While we commend the good work done by our customs agents in this country, while we are pleased that they will now have these new powers to exercise, we are concerned that the government has not taken seriously enough the issue of protecting the integrity of our borders and we intend to fully pursue that issue and demand that we take greater measures to ensure that shipments coming into this country are properly inspected.
We are also very concerned that the veteran customs officer to whom I referred, Mr. Coffey, a dedicated 25 year servant of the revenue department, was dismissed this week by the Department of National Revenue for making public his allegations about fraud, waste, nepotism and abuse in his department. This is not how we should treat our customs agents. We ought to honour the service they give to the country. We ought not take this kind of draconian action against people who blow the whistle when they see corruption in their departments.
It is scandalous that the Department of National Revenue has dismissed Mr. Coffey. This underlines once more the need for tough whistle-blower protection legislation so that public servants can speak the truth and identify waste, fraud and corruption where they exist in the public sector without fear of intimidation or losing their jobs because of the government.
We will support Bill C-18 but we are not entirely pleased with the way the government has dealt with the protection of our borders and with the commendable service of our customs agents.