Mr. Speaker, coming from where I do, Oshawa, I realize how important it is for our border crossings to work efficiently, but we also have to be able to ensure security.
As the minister said in this House, CBSA does examine these things very carefully to ensure that money is being well spent on the crossings and things are being appropriately done. We know that CBSA has made certain recommendations, and we believe that those recommendations are consistent with the interests of Canadians who access these border crossings, as well as continuing to stimulate trade across the border with the Americans. Coming from Oshawa, I do realize the importance and the government recognizes the importance of a border that works as seamlessly as possible.
Since 9/11, we have had some challenges with moving forward to make sure that these borders are secure. It is a group agreement. We work in collaboration with our American partners and with local municipalities on both sides of the border. Security issues are very important and trade issues are very important, and we have to ensure that these crossings work appropriately with security.
Our government has actually made record amounts of investments in border crossings and border security. I can bring forward the investments we have made in NEXUS, in moving forward to allow people who move back and forth across the border a speedier crossing.
We can look at the investments we have made at border crossings, and I like to use the ones at Windsor-Detroit as examples. For years and years, this crossing had been ignored and our government has finally made huge investments and partnerships to move that forward so we can get more and more merchandise going over that bridge. I believe that merchandise is now at over $1 billion a day
Of course we have increased funding to Canadian border services.
Always, when these decisions are made, they are very difficult. I want to assure the member that when the government makes these decisions, we try to take the biggest picture possible to ensure that we are able to get people and goods across the border as seamlessly as possible, but also ensure that security objectives are being met.