Canada Border Services Agency ‘Desperately Understaffed,’ Union President Testifies

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) does not have the staff to properly deal with Canada’s worsening auto-theft crisis, much of which hinges on adequate security at the nation’s ports and borders, says the national head of the union representing CBSA personnel. “We’re having a really hard time, and when I say that we’re desperately understaffed, we are desperately understaffed,” Customs and Immigration Union president Mark Weber testified at a Feb. 26 meeting of the Public Safety and National Security Committee (SECU). “We’re essentially trying to fill 100 holes with 50 pegs all the time,” he added. The committee met to examine the growing problem of car theft in Canada. Many of the cars stolen in Canada are exported abroad, with Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich testifying that an estimated 60 percent of vehicles are foreign-bound....