Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that would be required. Right now, as I said, the situation is being contained. The problem is that we're forecasting that more than 200,000 people in the United States who are on TPS permits, which will be ending, will have two choices: either to leave and go back to their country or to try to come to Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Part of the plan that the government has put in place, and that's where we do disagree—I wouldn't say the government but more the CBSA—is that they have created a number of officers who volunteer to be deployed at Roxham Road or Lacolle to help with that situation. The problem is that the volunteers are coming from the offices, which are already very tight with their resources.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The government has just appointed a new Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction. While the exact mandate is unclear, jointly improving our mobility enforcement capacity between ports of entry should be a priority. I want to thank the committee for having me here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the standing committee. My name is Jean-Pierre Fortin, and I am the national president of the Customs and Immigration Union. Our union has 10,000 members and represents Canada's front-line customs and immigration officers; investigations, intelligence, and trade customs officers; immigration, inland enforcement, and hearing officers; as well as support staff who work at the Canada Border Services Agency.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  We are, but until we get to see the refined details of Bill C-21, I'm not in a position to make more comments. As I mentioned, I do have concerns about the level of work that it will require. I keep thinking that if we need to actually check not only cars, but everything that may leave Canada, particularly certain goods—drugs could be one of them—we want to make sure that we have enough people to do those inspections.

Public Safety committee  The answer, we suspect, is yes. It will be more work for our officers to pay attention to export merchandise.

Public Safety committee  Probably.

Public Safety committee  Probably less for individuals: you're correct.

Public Safety committee  Well, again, we're unclear about the level of detail. This is something that we put in our brief with regard to the policies. We haven't seen them yet, but we suspect that with the magnitude of this project, which is called entry/exit, there will be more work for our officers, even analysis.

Public Safety committee  You are correct.

Public Safety committee  We certainly can, but very promptly what I can tell you is that our concern right now is more about the level of staffing and the workload that there will be for our officers. That's where I personally have a huge concern: it's for the officers out in the field. If we have more responsibilities, we need to have more officers.

Public Safety committee  The negative concern is probably for my colleague beside me here, because most of the people I spoke with have concerns with regard to the information that's being shared, but in terms of practicality, on a day-to-day basis, yes. As I mentioned prior to this, right now, I think it's about what our members need to have to do a better job.

Public Safety committee  With regard to the business side, we haven't heard any major concerns—not at my level.