Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, February 18, 2021 -

The Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) approach to managing removal cases has not led to the timely removal of foreign nationals from Canada, according to a report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (the Committee) presented today by Kelly Block, Chair of the Committee.

In the spring of 2020, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada released a performance audit whose purpose was to determine whether CBSA, in coordination with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, removed individuals ordered to leave Canada as soon as possible to protect the integrity of the immigration system and maintain public safety.

The audit found that despite a recent increase in removals, about 50,000 enforceable cases had continued to accumulate in CBSA’s inventory. In two thirds of these cases, the Agency did not know the whereabouts of the individuals. Most of the accumulated cases had been enforceable for several years.

As part of its report on this audit, the Committee made four recommendations concerning CBSA’s objectives and performance measures regarding immigration removals, the use of voluntary returns, and improvement of the Agency’s data and case management.