Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, as the national president of the union that represents CBSA personnel, including the border officers who work at marine ports, I'm glad to once again have the opportunity to appear before you. I hope to be of some assistance as part of your study on the growing problem of car thefts in Canada. Border officers are rarely consulted by senior agency officials, and I'm thankful to be here today to represent the hard-working women and men of the front line.

I'll be pretty brief. Anyone who's paid attention to the media in the last decade will know that the issue of stolen cars being exported through marine ports is not new. Unsurprisingly, the emphasis has often been on the border aspect of the issue, yet marine ports where stolen vehicles are sent to be exported are the last step in the process. More needs to be done to prevent vehicles from being stolen or reaching the port in the first place, and we are glad to see that this seems to be the consensus that emerged from the recent summit on car thefts.

Regarding the border itself, in the last few weeks we've seen both the federal government and official opposition propose a number of solutions, some of which are to be commended, considering the fairly unreliable nature of the inspection system that's currently available to our officers. However, at the end of the day, no effort was made to find out from the officers who work on the front line what was required to facilitate their examinations. Had anyone asked the question, they would have been told that a lack of space is the primary factor impacting the volume of examinations that we can perform at the port of Montreal. While the union provided a short, last-minute brief prior to the summit on car thefts highlighting this, it's unclear if this has been taken into consideration by the minister, as we were not involved or asked to participate in the summit.

This is yet another example of what the Customs and Immigration Union has been flagging for a long time, that solutions to border problems must involve the officers who perform work at the border on a daily basis. Once again, we're seeing solutions either proposed by people who have never done the work or adopted under the advisement of individuals who have never done the work. This is truly unique within the realm of law enforcement, because senior officials in most other law enforcement agencies and organizations have at least some level of frontline experience. This is rarely—close to never—the case at the CBSA, the result being an unparalleled disconnect between the upper echelon and the front line.

In closing, I want to insist on the fact that all of this is not a new problem and that more could have been done much earlier on. While the issue of exported stolen vehicles does not rest solely on the shoulders of the CBSA, we should not be surprised that the agency is somewhat out of breath, given past policy decisions under the Conservative government's deficit reduction action plan back in 2014, where we saw our personnel slashed by about 1,100 officers, from which we're still trying to recover.

Under the current government, things haven't been much better. Little has been done to actively address this deficit in personnel, with the focus being instead on misguided ventures such as ArriveCAN, highlighting what can only be described as a desire to turn our borders into a grocery store self-serve checkout.

Ultimately, investment in personnel and people is paramount to the process. Even where personnel issues may not be the primary factor, such as at the port of Montreal, the ability of the agency to protect Canadians and adapt to new challenges rests on a properly staffed front line.

I thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

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