International Trade committee  Yes. Again, I'm happy to. I think there was a bit of a perception that somehow by importers holding their own surety there would be a better guarantee of payment of duties and taxes to the Government of Canada. I mean, customs brokers have initiated that capacity on behalf of importers for decades, and there's never been an issue where a customs broker has gone bankrupt—very seldom.

International Trade committee  Absolutely it will add to the cost, because now every single importer will have to pay a premium in order to obtain a surety bond. The maximum amount is still in place, but now, because GST is part of the equation, for many, many importers that will exponentially increase the amount of surety they need.

International Trade committee  From our perspective, to implement a system that is not fully functional is irresponsible, I believe. The benefits communicated at the onset of the project will simply not materialize. A lot of money has been spent, taxpayers' money, to implement a system that in its current state just does not work.

International Trade committee  I would concur with what Ms. Campbell is saying. It would not impact the border.

International Trade committee  We've been asking for the written transition plans for literally weeks and weeks. As we go into a subcommittee meeting, unfortunately, everything's verbal. It's on a slide that doesn't really solidify what those transition plans are, what the contingency plans are and what the comms plan is to communicate with us when they're down for this period of 16 days.

International Trade committee  Yes. One of the things we had never heard before was that one of the strategies is to roll back, so as we go live on May 13, if they experience an issue or a challenge, there is an opportunity to roll back. We'd never heard that before. For decades, we were told that there's a big bang approach and the system could not be implemented over a series of triages until we reached a steady state.

International Trade committee  Actually we have raised the issue with the CBSA on a number of different occasions. It can take weeks or in some cases months to resolve tickets. We heard testimony the other day about how a resolution period of 10 days has now suddenly dropped to seven, but if it's a critical issue, it's a critical issue.

International Trade committee  Yes, I would be happy to. It's a great question. The perception is that small or medium-sized businesses are very savvy on customs import activities and legislation and on how to apply that legislation in the Customs Act. Truth be told—and Ms. Bilodeau made that comment—they're more concerned about running their business.

International Trade committee  Actually, what it means is that incorrect calculations of duties and taxes are a cause of revenue leakage for the CBSA and the receiver general at the month's end. It's a simple functionality. To Ms. Pohlmann's point, customs are complex. Adhering to the policies that we have to go by under the Customs Act is not easy by any stretch, but the duty remissions....

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and honourable members of the committee. My name is Candace Sider, and I am the vice-chair of the board of directors for the Canadian Society of Customs Brokers, CSCB. I am honoured to share the views of Canada's customs brokers concerning the implementation of CARM.