Public Safety Minister Gary Anandsangaree has ordered the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to produce a report within 30 days following last week’s widespread IT system outage that disrupted airport kiosks and commercial operations at the border.
While the initial reports indicate that an investigation into the recent kiosk outages at Canadian airports will be part of this report, it is also expected to include investigations into the root causes of the outage and preventive measures.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) said in a news release that the incident underscores long-standing concerns about the reliability of CBSA’s legacy systems. The organization wrote that the damaging supply chain disruptions that businesses on both sides of the border and truck drivers faced last week can be mitigated to the greatest extent possible through investing into securing and bolstering the legacy systems.
“With the continued unpredictability around the Canada-U.S. trade war, and the unknown posed by upcoming CUSMA negotiations, ensuring stability from a trade and cross-border supply chain perspective remains imperative,” said Lak Shoan, CTA’s director of policy and industry awareness programs. “We hope this report will finally identify and address the long-standing concerns from the trade community, as this type of disruption simply cannot happen again.”
