Chapter 3: The Canada Border Services Agency's National Security and Intelligence Activities — The Committee's Assessment
National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Annual Report 2019

The Committee's Assessment

CBSA’s role in Canada's security and intelligence community

444. The Committee accepts CBSA’s statement that it plays a "niche" role within the national security and intelligence community, and recognizes the important role that intelligence plays across the full spectrum of CBSA’s activities. CBSA has no specific statutory mandate to conduct national security and intelligence activities; rather it does so in support of its program legislation. CBSA uses intelligence to develop a risk management strategy to identify border-related threats as far in advance as possible before they arrive at a Canadian port of entry, and to interdict these threats and mitigate them.

445. CBSA’s national security responsibilities flow from its mandate to make admissibility decisions concerning goods and people and to facilitate the flow of legitimate trade and travel. CBSA’s conduct of sensitive national security activities is of clear value to its mandate, particularly its work in security screening, immigration enforcement and targeting. Those operations are of significant value to other government departments too, notably IRCC in the shared administration and enforcement of IRPA, and CSIS in the identification of unknown threats to the security of Canada.

Ministerial direction and national security and intelligence activities

446. Since 2013, [*** The following sentence was revised to remove injurious or privileged information. The sentence notes that the department was aware that its sensitive intelligence-gathering activities, including the use of surveillance and confidential human sources, would benefit from ministerial direction. ^{Footnote 209} ***] The Committee believes ministerial direction would clarify CBSA’s mandate, authorities and accountability obligations for sensitive activity areas, and would bring CBSA in line with its partners, who have received ministerial direction in these areas.

447. As is the case with ministerial direction to CBSA on implementing the government's intelligence priorities, direction is important both for ministerial accountability and to help CBSA prioritize its resources. CBSA’s own tiered system of enforcement and intelligence priorities is aligned with its risk-based approach to border management and border enforcement, and helps CBSA dedicate its resources to areas of highest risk.

National security and intelligence partnerships

448. CBSA’s partnerships improve the efficacy of its operations while contributing to the effective operations of the wider national security and intelligence community. Partnerships help CBSA to support national security and public safety priorities, and to achieve positive national security outcomes.

Governance of national security and intelligence activities

449. CBSA’s sensitive national security and intelligence activities are well governed. In each area, CBSA has implemented formal guidance, policy and standard operating procedures. Individual program areas and activities are subject to risk assessment and mitigation, internal audit and evaluation, and are expected to report internally to CBSA senior management on their activities. That said, internal CBSA reporting on its sensitive national security and intelligence activities is piecemeal and lacks a cumulative assessment of risks and outcomes. Consistency and clarity in annual reporting on CBSA national security and intelligence activities would improve CBSA’s governance of its sensitive national security and intelligence activities.

450. CBSA’s change to a new functional management structure is likely to strengthen its governance of sensitive national security and intelligence activities. At present, however, it is too early to make any definitive assessment on the outcomes of this change.