CBSA Border Infrastructure Environnemental Scan

1. Canada – United States Transportation Border Working Group (TBWG) November 18-19 2008 – Toronto, Ontario CBSA Border Infrastructure Environnemental Scan

2. Overview • Growth in trade has outpaced the capacity of border infrastructure. Further, the transportation of goods has also been transformed by developments and increased use of containerisation, just-in-time delivery of goods, increased competitiveness of air cargo, and international courier services; • Challenge is to enhance security while reducing congestion and border wait times. • Pressures from industry to address concerns that current border processing and wait times are having impact on Canada’s competitiveness • Concerns that WHTI will exacerbate the negative impact of border processing and wait times • Transportation and related border infrastructure is multi-jurisdictional in nature: • Challenging to achieving consensus among various levels of government on both sides of the border;

3. Current State • Previous government border investments did not always address the bottlenecks that are essential to improving the border’s capacity: • e.g. CBSA Ports of Entry. • 96% of previous Border Infrastructure Fund and the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Fund investments were exclusively in highway capacity improvements: • The Gateways and Border Crossing Fund (GBCF) has corrected this oversight. • The capacity of our ports of entry are driven by the needs of the transportation system such as the nature and volume of traffic, the level of service expectations of users, and national security considerations; • Port of Entry installations, systems, and processes are often a bottleneck in the transportation system they serve

4. Strategic Investment • Essential that future border investments be focused and integrated to achieve system wide improvements; • Credible investments in information technology, operational equipment and systems, human resources, and fixed infrastructure are essential to develop and maintain the credibility and trust necessary to sustain these relationships with our security and trade partners • the GBCF recognises that system wide capacity improvements can only be achieved by investing in the system bottlenecks: • Infrastructure (roads, bridges, ports, ports of entry) and, or information technology improvements (intelligent transportation systems); • Specifically recognizes that the CBSA port or entry is an essential and integral component of the global and trans-border transportation system.

5. Prior to Arriving at the Border At the Border Beyond the Border Level of Activity Low High Level of Activity Low High Level of Activity Low High Current Level of Activity Low High Level of Activity Low High Level of Activity Low High Future Future Direction

6. Future Direction…. Cont’d • Information technologies are facilitation and security enablers and have the potential to expedite the processing of goods and people seeking entry into Canada, and in controlling exports; • Recent investments in information technologies have moved processing away from the border and improved the timeliness, accuracy and completeness of the information provided for border management. Information technology has also effectively increased the capacity of the fixed border infrastructure by expediting border processing, while improving significantly our capacity to interdict. These investments have helped to forego or delay major fixed infrastructure investments.