Canada Border Services Agency - Changes To The CBSA

Changes To The CBSA

Since the creation of the Agency in 2003, the CBSA has undergone significant changes to its overall structure as services previously offered by different agencies are now housed under a single banner. Not only has the structure of the organization changed, but the range of duties and the institutional priorities have changed. Where the prior coupling of Canada Customs with the Canada Revenue Agency lent itself to a focus on tax collection, the new Agency was created to address heightened security concerns post-9/11, and to respond to criticisms, mostly from the United States, that Canada was not doing enough to ensure the security of North America.

Substantial changes began before the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. In May 1998, the Government of Canada passed an Act to amend the Customs Act and the Criminal Code, which changed agency policy to allow the officers to arrest and detain individuals at the border for non-customs related violations of Canadian law. These new responsibilities led to the implementation of use of force policies. Border Services Officers across Canada started to carry collapsible batons, OC spray and handcuffs. The 2006 Canadian federal budget introduced $101 million to equip CBSA officers with side arms and to eliminate single-person border crossings to help officers perform their duties. The decision to arm BSOs has been a subject of some controversy in Canada for several years, but the idea has had the support of other law enforcement agencies as well as the union that represents the affected officers.

In August 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that arming BSOs would begin in early 2007 and would continue over the next 10 years. Some of the first officers to be armed will be those working at the Windsor, Ontario port of entry, the busiest highway port of entry in Canada. Arming at the other Ports of Entry across Canada is being conducted systematically with those Ports considered the busiest and/or most dangerous to be completed first. At this time it has not been decided when, and if, officers at airports will be armed.