Zipping through the Canada-U.S. border in 15 seconds. Facial recognition cameras at the airport to open an electronic gate. Sending your declaration to customs before you even get off the plane.
Those are just some of the changes in the works at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) — partly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Denis Vinette, vice-president of the CBSA’s travellers branch, said the agency had been considering technological changes to the border — but the pandemic has allowed it to break through “glass ceilings” that were in the way.
When COVID-19 hit, the CBSA was confronted with a challenge, Vinette said — how could officers handle the “mounds of paper” and medical information the Public Health Agency of Canada required travellers to present?
The solution was to move to an internet cloud environment and to develop the ArriveCan app, he said.
“ArriveCan, even though we’ve got low travel volumes, has been really a game-changer,” said Vinette. “It’s allowed us to deal with information required in a new way and nimble way.”
The ArriveCan app also set the stage for a new system that has been introduced already at the Toronto and Vancouver airports. The system allows travellers returning to Canada to voluntarily send their customs declarations to CBSA before their plane even lands.
“By the time I arrive at the airport, all I’ll be doing is confirming my identity and my arrival,” Vinette said. “And CBSA and other border authorities will have decided already whether or not we have an interest in having an interaction with you.”
Once the system is rolled out, a family returning from Disney World, for example, could send the CBSA their advanced declaration and digital travel credentials.
A passenger arrives at a CBSA kiosk at Macdonald–Cartier International Airport in Ottawa on January 13, 2022. (Pascal Quillé/CBSA)
“When they arrive, they come up to the kiosk, their identity is confirmed, they grab their bags, they get into the car and then they ask themselves a question — did I just cross the border? Did I forget to talk to the border services officer?” Vinette said.
He said the CBSA plans to expand the system to other airports and to add the advanced declaration function to the ArriveCan app so that travelers can submit both health and customs declarations at the same time.
The CBSA also wants to introduce the advanced declaration system for those travelling by cruise ship and rail, and for those crossing the land border.
Vinette said that, prior to the pandemic, the CBSA had brought the average time spent speaking with a customs officer at the land border down to an average of 55 seconds. With the new technologies, Vinette said, the agency hopes to bring that average time down to 15 seconds.
Facial recognition
Canadians and Americans with NEXUS trusted traveller cards have long been able to go through customs more quickly than others. Now, the CBSA is planning to add facial recognition to NEXUS kiosks at the airport.
“You will tap your card, it will take a picture and verify it against your passport picture that’s on file and confirm your identity and ask you one question — do you have anything to declare above your entitlements?” said Vinette.
In Toronto and Winnipeg, e-gates have been installed which open automatically once your identity is confirmed.
Vinette predicts that, in the future, passengers could use their mobile phones and an app like the current pay-by-phone service to breeze through the process.
“You might have something similar where you’ve done everything on your phone, you’ve got your digital travel credential encoded on your phone and you would just swipe your phone,” Vinette said. “It will verify that the passport, the travel credential, the person are all the same. Gate opens.”
An arrival terminal at Macdonald–Cartier International Airport in Ottawa on January 13, 2022. (Pascal Quillé/CBSA)
Passengers also will still be free to opt for the traditional way of crossing the border, or to make their customs declarations verbally to an officer, Vinette said.
Some of the technological innovations the CBSA has in the works will be less visible to travelers.
The agency wants to increase its use of data analytics to help officers distinguish between low-risk individuals who cross the border frequently and those who pose a higher risk. It is also hoping that data analytics can help it detect trends and patterns that can help officers flag people who might be smuggling drugs or guns into Canada.
The Security Screening Automation project will replace manual searches for the immigration department with automated searches. Meanwhile, the CBSA has been implementing its air exit program, through which airlines provide it with information about their passengers.
Privacy concerns
Vinette said the CBSA has been working closely with the federal privacy commissioner’s office to ensure that the technological innovations it wants to implement respect privacy and IT security standards.
Vito Pilieci, spokesperson for the privacy commissioner’s office, said they have been consulted on the ArriveCan app and are about to begin a privacy impact review of CBSA’s advance declaration system.
Pilieci said the office has been back and forth with the CBSA about using facial biometric verification for NEXUS members and the CBSA’s increased use of data analytics.
Ann Cavoukian, a former Ontario privacy commissioner who is now executive director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre, said it is important for travellers to consent to providing their images or information and to know how the information is going to be used by the government.
“Privacy and security have to be embedded into all of this,” she said.
For example, Cavoukian said, there is a difference between “one to one” facial recognition — where one photo is compared with one face — and “one to many” facial recognition systems used in places like the United Kingdom where someone’s face is compared with many other photos in a database.
Cavoukian said the information collected by the CBSA has to be stored securely, the data should be encrypted and it should be clear whether other government departments can access the information and the images collected.
“The potential for privacy problems is significant,” Cavoukian said.
Elizabeth Thompson can be reached at elizabeth.thompson@cbc.ca
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
