The cross-border supply chain continues to deal with numerous system outages related to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) IT systems processing trade data for the agency. The outages continue to increase significantly in frequency and duration and are highly disruptive to carriers and their customers during this sluggish freight economy, which cannot afford any delay costs.

“Although the outages over the last few weeks have been very significant, this matter has been an ongoing issue for many years. Trade between the United States and Canada is regularly brought to a halt because Ottawa has failed to address outdated systems used to process shipments. Today, the entire northern border has come to a standstill because of that neglect,” said Stephen Laskowski, CEO and President, Canadian Trucking Alliance. 

Although improvements and fixes continue to occur to these outdated systems, the legacy systems being used by the CBSA reportedly can no longer deal with the growing demands of ecommerce and the increasing volumes of trade data they are tasked with processing. 

“In addition to tariffs and the underground economy that carriers are grappling with, these system outages further exacerbate the untenable situation for our industry and the exporters they serve,” says Lak Shoan, Director of Policy and Industry Awareness Programs, CTA. “Today is another disconcerting example of our economy being halted due to antiquated infrastructure. We are hopeful the upcoming federal budget will finally address this matter, which is critical to the efficient and timely movement of trade, as well as the national security of our nation.”

CTA has included this border and trade investment recommendation in its pre-budget submission and written the Council of the Federation and asked them to press Ottawa on this investment decision. 

“The Prime Minister has recognized that our economy and our direction as a nation needs to be adjusted. The investment in our border infrastructure is at a crisis level. We simply cannot have the movement of thousands of trucks come to a crawl at international border crossings, while giving another signal to the international business community that Canada is not open for business,” said Laskowski.