• Some people who pose a threat to Canadians’ security have managed to enter the country illegally because of lax border entry controls. Auditor General Michael Ferguson said he was “very concerned that our audit found too many examples of controls not working.”
• Canada’s safety system for food recalls needs to get better: the auditor general identified “significant gaps” in some parts of it. For instance, follow-up reviews in meat plants were not always done quickly, and emergency response plans sometimes confused the government staff who make key safety decisions.
• Transport Canada’s oversight of rail safety remains plagued with numerous problemsincluding inadequate training and tools for inspectors, sloppy paperwork and poor supervision from management. In one example, the auditor general noted the department had “completed only 26 per cent of its planned audits of federal railways over a three-year period.”
• The navy is at risk of shrinking in both size and capabilities unless the federal government is prepared to inject more money into its multi-billion dollar national shipbuilding plan. “Canada may not get the military ships it needs if budgets are not subject to change,” the auditor general’s report says. It also says that while transforming the shipyards in Halifax and Vancouver into strong, competitive manufacturing centres is a key objective of the shipbuilding plan, the government hasn’t established a way to measure success.
• The federal department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development isn’t doing enough to support emergency management for First Nations on reserves; it is trapped in a cycle of “reacting to emergencies” rather than trying to prevent them.
• Several federal departments have not ensured adequate control over their own financial reporting. Departments are supposed to have reliable financial information on which to base their own policy decisions, but five of the seven departments audited had not made much progress on tightening their internal controls.
• The federal government’s online services are often not user-friendly for Canadians. “As Canadians rely more on the Internet in their day-to-day lives, they expect the government to provide them with online information and services that address their needs,” Ferguson said.
• Assistance for farmers after disasters is not always well managed, with some, particularly after less costly disasters, waiting more than a year for financial help from the AgriRecovery program.
• The Canada Revenue Agency is doing a good job using the information it has obtained about offshore bank accounts Liechtenstein to discourage Canadians from hiding taxable income there. But “the agency has to be ready to deal with the increased workload in this area,” the auditor general warned. “ If taxpayers think that they can avoid declaring revenue by earning it offshore, then compliance may decline and erode Canada’s revenue base.”
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• Canada’s safety system for food recalls needs to get better: the auditor general identified “significant gaps” in some parts of it. For instance, follow-up reviews in meat plants were not always done quickly, and emergency response plans sometimes confused the government staff who make key safety decisions.
• Transport Canada’s oversight of rail safety remains plagued with numerous problemsincluding inadequate training and tools for inspectors, sloppy paperwork and poor supervision from management. In one example, the auditor general noted the department had “completed only 26 per cent of its planned audits of federal railways over a three-year period.”
• The navy is at risk of shrinking in both size and capabilities unless the federal government is prepared to inject more money into its multi-billion dollar national shipbuilding plan. “Canada may not get the military ships it needs if budgets are not subject to change,” the auditor general’s report says. It also says that while transforming the shipyards in Halifax and Vancouver into strong, competitive manufacturing centres is a key objective of the shipbuilding plan, the government hasn’t established a way to measure success.
• The federal department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development isn’t doing enough to support emergency management for First Nations on reserves; it is trapped in a cycle of “reacting to emergencies” rather than trying to prevent them.
• Several federal departments have not ensured adequate control over their own financial reporting. Departments are supposed to have reliable financial information on which to base their own policy decisions, but five of the seven departments audited had not made much progress on tightening their internal controls.
• The federal government’s online services are often not user-friendly for Canadians. “As Canadians rely more on the Internet in their day-to-day lives, they expect the government to provide them with online information and services that address their needs,” Ferguson said.
• Assistance for farmers after disasters is not always well managed, with some, particularly after less costly disasters, waiting more than a year for financial help from the AgriRecovery program.
• The Canada Revenue Agency is doing a good job using the information it has obtained about offshore bank accounts Liechtenstein to discourage Canadians from hiding taxable income there. But “the agency has to be ready to deal with the increased workload in this area,” the auditor general warned. “ If taxpayers think that they can avoid declaring revenue by earning it offshore, then compliance may decline and erode Canada’s revenue base.”
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OTTAWA – Dangerous people have slipped into Canada because of insufficient border controls,
according to a report by the auditor general.
according to a report by the auditor general.
The report suggests airlines are allowing some travellers to board without proper documentation and are failing to provide advance passenger information as required.
The number of improperly documented travellers last year was 2,508, according to the audit, and while the airlines were responsible for most of these numbers, they did a better job overall of tackling the issue than they had done previously.
The report found a 36 per cent jump in the number of undocumented travellers — those using fake passports — for which the airlines are not responsible.
This “is important because it reflects increasingly sophisticated fraud, which makes it difficult for airline staff to identify false travel documents,” the report indicated.
A review of 306 passengers who arrived in Canada between September and November 2012 also found that ticket, date of travel and bag information were missing for 11 per cent of passengers, while the airlines provided only partial information for 84 per cent of the travellers. Personal information such as name, date of birth, gender, citizenship and passport information was missing for 17 passengers.
The report noted several initiatives underway are expected to address the situation, including the new online mini-visa visitors will need to secure before coming to Canada starting in the fall of 2015, and an exit visa system due to be implemented by the end of June 2014.
According to the audit, the Canada Border Service Agency has made “little progress” in terms of its monitoring of so-called “lookouts”: individuals or shipments headed for Canada that intelligence has determined may pose a threat.
The audit looked at 34 suspected cases in February 2013 to determine if border agents caught them and sent them for secondary examination. The review found they missed five, four of whom were found to have entered the country. There’s no record of the fifth individual ever entering Canada, which means he or she either never did, or successfully entered using fraudulent documents.
The examination results for another 12 lookouts were never recorded.
“Lookouts are intended to intercept known high-risk individuals who attempt to enter Canada and are connected to activities such as terrorism, organized crime or irregular migration,” said the audit.
“Given the seriousness of the threats that lookouts are designed to address, even one missed lookout is cause for concern.”
The audit also raised concerns about the RCMP’s success in intercepting illegal migrants between ports of entry.
Despite a lack of data, the audit found the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams intercepted about half of known illegal entities. The Marine Enforcement Security Teams, despite a lack of resources, intercepted about 80 per cent.
According to the audit, the Canada Border Service Agency processed 98.7 million travellers in 2011-12, about one-third of them foreign nationals. That amounts to about 90,000 foreign travellers each day,
Canada denied entry to another 54,000 people at ports of entry, while 4,000 were intercepted overseas. The RCMP intercepted another 1,277 people for entering Canada illegally between ports of entry.
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