CBSA system outage delaying trucks at Southern Ontario border crossings partially resolved
A Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) system outage that caused delays in commercial processing at Southern Ontario ports of entry on Sept. 30, has been partially resolved, allowing most shipment processing to proceed.
“Commercial drivers may continue to experience delays as we resume normal processing operations. We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience experienced,” a CBSA spokesman told trucknews.com in an update.
Earlier, CBSA said that it was working closely with IT partners to resolve this issue as soon as possible. “Primary inspection lanes at Peace Bridge and Queenston-Lewiston Bridge have been staffed with officers to process traffic and shipments. We are actively working with our partners at the Peace Bridge Authority and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission to assist with traffic control,” the spokesperson said.
The Private Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC) said repeated IT failures at the border are unacceptable.
“We have long called for Canada to invest money and time into fixing software and hardware issues with border clearing systems,” said Mike Millian, PMTC president. “We receive updates multiple times a week, going on for well over a year, of system delays or outages, which frankly make a country so reliant on trade look bad.”
PMTC expresses concern
He added that these outages cost the industry untold millions of dollars in lost time and productivity. “The total shutdown of clearance capability this morning shows how vulnerable we are to this issue, and how the current situation is untenable and needs to be rectified in short order.”
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) also criticized Ottawa, saying cross-border trade is repeatedly being disrupted by outdated CBSA systems that cannot handle modern demands.
“Although the outages over the last few weeks have been very significant, this matter has been an ongoing issue for many years,” Stephen Laskowski, CTA president and CEO, said in a news release. “Today, the entire northern border has come to a standstill because of that neglect.”
CTA calls out antiquated infrastructure
CTA noted the systems can no longer keep pace with growing e-commerce and trade data. “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,” said Lak Shoan, CTA’s director of policy and industry awareness programs.
CTA has included border infrastructure investment in its pre-budget submission and pressed the Council of the Federation to urge Ottawa to act. “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,” Laskowski said.
This story has been updated with the latest CBSA comment.
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Well said
How horrifying it is to be stuck in a foreign country and not being allowed to return home because of a computer problem. There was not much help from the American side. I saw trucks parked on the side of highways, on the shoulder of ramps, in abandoned lots, and in the lots of many businesses. There seemed to be no plan on how to deal with the large number of stranded transports. Workers were positioned near the entry points to the border crossings. They would allow cars to proceed and they would turn trucks away. I asked where we were supposed to go and how were we to get back home. Their reply was, “We don’t care, just go”. I remember spending two nights away from home during the Christmas blizzard a few years ago because Western New York shut down. Things were handled much better back then. This time was truly a nightmare.
Of course our Liberal government wont invest millions in updated IT systems at CBSA ports of entry. They were too busy spending it on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, wasting it on environmental projects, electric car subsidies, carbon taxes, emissions caps for industry, bans on resource development via the Impact Assessment Act, pipeline bans, marine tanker bans off the northern BC coast, etc.
This has been causing a lot of problems for our customers that expect their shipments get delivered in the same day that we cross over into Canada. This seems to have gotten worse over the last two weeks. I know that it is not just a FedEx Freight problem but all carriers. There has to be a quick fix to this. Drivers are sitting for hours and then they run out of driving time and that will delay them even further.
This has to be fixed, and I would suggest the faster the better. Instead of commercial carriers are we going to have to start using commercial airlines to move freight?
The situation is not good at all . This is 2nd time in last 2 months. This kind of delays are costing the exporters , businesses, transports and drivers too.
I am sitting at truck stop for 30 hours now for cbsa clearance at detroit-windsor border.
Total BS of staffing extra officers at the booths. Only 3 boots plus a FAST lane opened yesterday at Sarnia (Point Edward) crosing I waited 8 H and 30 Min to cross.
Totally agree with Mr. Laskowski, these problems having been on going for years and has escalated this whole year till now, totally unacceptable! It has cost us all time and money that we cannot recoup from anyone, it also starting to way on driver retention for drivers going to the USA. We have enough problems happening with the on going Trump regime causing havoc with everything cross border and trade. We do not need our own gov’t services making it any hard than we already have it, in these tough times we do not need gov’t incompetence making it worse!!