Brian Masse on Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

With regard to the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) Request for Assistance Program (RFA), which has historically been an effective tool for Intellectual Property (IP) rights owners to prevent counterfeit goods from crossing the Canadian border and entering the commerce stream, and having cut the RFA program significantly: (a) does the government have plans to (i) reassess the cuts to training and processes that limit CBSA officers from efficiently searching, identifying and detaining the counterfeit products, (ii) reinvest in the RFA program in the next years, and, if so, when, (iii) work and discuss the impacts that these cuts have had on Canadians, businesses and trade noting that Canada is the only G7 country on the 2023 United States Trade Representative Watchlist, (iv) meet directly with the Customs Immigration Union to ensure that the frontline officers participate in the process to reestablish increased searches, identification and counterfeit products processes; and (b) how much estimated value has been confiscated each year from this program and from how many seizures for the last ten years at all ports of entry to Canada?