OTTAWA — While ACI eManifest compliance has officially been extended by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) is urging carriers to “get with the program.”

The program has been extended beyond the original May 1, 2013 deadline to an unknown deadline. However, CTA said that the regulations required to enforce the eManifest requirements aren’t expected to pass until the Fall.

And the only heads-up carriers will get at that point will be a 45 days advance notice.

“If you wait until the 45 day notice period before starting to get ready, you won’t have enough time to be in compliance when the program does become mandatory,” warned CTA president and CEO David Bradley.

Bradley also noted that early-adopters of the program are “not pleased” by the announcement. “The one thing we asked CBSA from the outset was to avoid the kind of stop-start approach to implementation that characterized the roll-out U.S. eManifest program so this announcement will not sit well with a lot of our members,” Bradley said.

But there’s not much anyone can do about the regulations not passing. “If the regulations haven’t passed, they haven’t passed.”

“Like any new program there have been some hiccups during implementation,” Bradley continued. “Some early adopters have experienced delays and complications sometimes arising out of a lack of familiarity on the part of CBSA border agents with the new policies and procedures — but on balance most have experienced faster clearance or believe clearance will be expedited once the bugs are worked out.”