First, Canada Customs has a critical shortage of Customs Officers and, second, it has a perilous shortage of funds to pay existing staff. 

Not surprisingly Canada Customs spent its poorly inadequate budgeted salary dollars at a much faster pace than anticipated, which would otherwise have led it into red ink by fiscal year-end.  With school out and thousands of students available for cheap work during the summer, Canada Customs hired 1,200 of these students – by Minister Caplan’s own admission – and is now scheduling as many of them on as many shifts as possible while actively reducing the number of shifts full-time, permanent, trained and professional Customs Officers must work. 

“In an e-mail copied anonymously to my office, a Southern Ontario Chief of Customs advised the e-mail’s management recipients that ‘Superintendents were encouraged [from senior Management] to take operational risks,’ ” said Ron Moran. The e-mail details in bullet form reductions of Officers for shifts and the assigning of work to students.  “In another e-mail,” adds Moran, “a Customs Superintendent from Atlantic Canada advised the e-mail’s recipients that ‘the district hierarchy has again instructed [him] to schedule the students to replace regular officers.’ “   Copies of these documents are available upon request.

Moran says, “Students are not at all fully trained, they don’t have to pass rigorous testing like professional Officers, and are therefore not supposed to do the full job … but they often do.  Quite honestly, they shouldn’t be part of the border security equation if this country is to appear serious about wanting to protect our national security and economy.  Importers and exporters have been telling the Canadian government that the most effective and immediately available solution to improving the flow of goods is simply to have more adequately trained Officers at the border.  The U.S. have understood this and acted upon it.”

In contrast to Canadian operations, U.S. authorities have taken significant strides in recent years and drastically increased their level of security enforcement personnel along the U.S./Canada border.  On July 2, 2003, for example, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) publicized that 375 veteran Agents were being reassigned to the Northern Border.  The U.S. will now employ a total of 3,563 security enforcement personnel along their Northern border.  Plus, “staffing levels of full-time Customs Officers has increased in most U.S. locations.  This enabled CBP to place permanent, full time, fully trained Customs Officers into positions, eliminating the need for temporary and seasonal employees.”

According to CEUDA files, the total number of Customs Officers in Canada has only increased by 51 since the events of 9/11.  What is just as concerning, as revealed by the Auditor General of Canada in her May 2003 update to Parliament, is the fact that the number of uniformed Customs Officers in Canada “ is expected to fall by 2004-05.”

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