Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, December 13, 2017 -

The Canada Border Services Agency (the Agency) was unable to accurately assess the nature of goods coming into Canada and the customs duties owed to the government for these goods; this was due in part to the Agency’s self-assessment system, which may have allowed importers to be non-compliant with import rules and regulations—and also due to the Agency’s own internal challenges relating to staffing—according to the first part of a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts tabled today in the House of Commons by the Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the spring of 2017, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit whose objective was to determine whether Finance Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and the Agency adequately managed customs duties according to their roles and responsibilities. The audit found that the Agency could not ensure that all customs duties owed to the government were assessed, and that Global Affairs Canada and the Agency could not ensure that the tariff rate quotas were respected. The Agency allowed some supply-managed goods to enter the Canadian market without the proper duties being paid. Additionally, Finance Canada suitably fulfilled its responsibilities in regard to customs duties, but needed to further review the relevance of tariff items to ensure that they met government objectives.

Specifically, the OAG found that the Agency did not evaluate the accuracy of import information provided by individual customs brokers, nor assess individual broker performance. Moreover, the Agency did not collect meaningful information about what was imported at the time the goods crossed the border; thus, it was hard for the Agency to verify whether an importer’s own reassessments—after goods entered into Canada—were accurate. In this report, the Committee made six recommendations that seek to ensure that the Agency, Global Affairs Canada and Finance Canada implement each of its proposed corrective measures in order to properly address the deficiencies identified in the OAG’s audit.